Censorship and Banned Books in Schools

While reading Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in school, teachers often spend full class periods discussing a very important issue: Mark Twains use of the n word throughout the book. Its important to not only explain that the book must be looked at through the context of the time period but also what Twain was trying to do with his story. He was trying to reveal the plight of the slave and he was doing so with the vernacular of the time. Students may make wisecracks, but its important to address their humor with information. Students need to understand the words meaning and Twains reasons for using it. These conversations are difficult to have because they are controversial and many people are very uncomfortable with the n word—for good reason. Due to its origins in slavery and racism, it is often the topic of disgruntled phone calls from parents. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the 4th most banned book  in schools according to Banned in the U.S.A. by Herbert N. Foerstal. In 1998 three new attacks arose to challenge its inclusion in education. Reasons for Banned Books Is censorship in schools good? Is it necessary to ban books? Each person answers these questions differently. This is the core of the problem for educators. Books can be found offensive for many reasons. Here are just some reasons taken from Rethinking Schools Online: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. Reason: Rape scene, anti-white.Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Reason: Profanity.Go Ask Alice by Anonymous. Reason: Drug use, sexual situations, profanity.A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck. Reason: Depiction of pigs mating and being slaughtered. More recent books that were challenged according to the American Library Association include the Twilight saga due to its religious viewpoint and violence and The Hunger Games because it was unsuited to the age group, sexually explicit and too violent. Many ways exist to ban books. Our county has a group which reads the questionable book and determines whether its educational value exceeds the weight of the objections against it. However, schools can ban books without this lengthy procedure. They just choose not to order the books in the first place. This is the situation in Hillsborough County, Florida. As reported in the St. Petersburg Times, one elementary school will not stock two of the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling because of the witchcraft themes. As the Principal explained it, the school knew they would get complaints about the books so they did not buy them. Many people, including the American Library Association, has spoken out against this. There is an article by Judy Blume on the website for the National Coalition Against Censorship to be very interesting. Its title: Is Harry Potter Evil? The question that faces us in the future is when do we stop? Do we remove mythology and Arthurian legends because of its references to magic? Do we strip the shelves of medieval literature because it presupposes the existence of saints? Do we remove Macbeth because of the murders and witches? Most would say there is a point where we must stop. But who gets to pick the point? Proactive Measures an Educator Can Take Education is not something to be feared. There are enough hurdles in teaching with which we must deal. So how can we stop the above situation from occurring in our classrooms? Here are just a few suggestions: Choose the books you use wisely. Make sure that they fit nicely into your curriculum. You should have evidence which you can present that the books you are using are necessary for the student.If you are using a book that you know has caused concerns in the past, try to come up with alternative novels that students can read.Make yourself available to answer questions about the books you have chosen. In the very beginning of the school year, introduce yourself to parents at  an open house  and tell them to call you if they have any concerns. If a parent calls you there will probably be less of a problem then if they call administration.Discuss the controversial issues in the book with the students. Explain to them the reasons those parts were necessary for the authors work.Have an outside speaker come to class to discuss concerns. For example, if you are reading  Huckleberry Finn, get a Civil Rights Activist to give a presentation to students about racism. Final Word Ray Bradbury  describes a situation in the  coda to  Fahrenheit 451. It is about a future where all books are burned because the people have decided that knowledge brings pain. It is far better to be ignorant than knowledgeable. Bradburys coda discusses the censorship that hes faced. He had a play that he sent to a university to be produced. They sent it back because it had no women in it. This is the height of irony. Nothing was said about the content of the play or the fact that there was a reason it featured only men. They did not want to offend a certain group at the school: women. Is there is  a place for censorship  and banning of books? Its hard to say that children should read certain books in certain grades, but education is not to be feared.

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How Psychological Theories Have Been Used in Beer Free Essays

When they see a person carrying a bottle of beer and the soft toy, they will Immediately apprehend IM without any questions asked. Back In the police station, the policemen would be enjoying the beer, which they had confiscated, while the Innocent customers would be miserably locked up In the cell. Similarly, this commercial Is supposedly targeted at adults, those who are above 8 years of age, since they are allowed to drink. We will write a custom essay sample on How Psychological Theories Have Been Used in Beer or any similar topic only for you Order Now However, everyone is again allowed to view the commercial for humor purposes. Our group will also be doing comparisons of the two beer commercials in terms of the psychological theories used and other dissimilarities worth mentioning. 2) Theory Reviews 2. ) Learning Theory There are basically three theories to learning, I) Classical conditioning II) Operant conditioning Ill) Observational learning Classical controlling Is the type of controlling that makes use of a stimulus that, before controlling, does not naturally bring about the response of Interest and a stimulus that brings about interest without having being learned. A good example loving it† makes it a top choice fast-food outlet that most people will patronize. The slogan in this case plays the role of a natural stimulus whereas Macdonald fast-food outlet is the unconditioned stimulus. Upon hearing the â€Å"I’m loving it† slogan, the sign of Macdonald fast-food outlet will appear unknowingly to our mind. Operant conditioning is a type of conditioning, which a voluntary response is strengthened or weakened, depending on its favorable or unfavorable consequences. An example will be that of a Wall’s ice-cream advertisement. With attractive offers like, buy 3 for the price of 2 or even free gifts being given away for each tub of ice- cream brought. Observational learning is learning through observing the behavior of another person called a model. A good example will be that of a coca cola drink advertisement. In most of the coca cola drink advertisement, there will be people drinking the coca cola drink itself and they will reveal a very refreshing and cooling expression when they finish drinking a drink and by seeing that after drinking that can of coca cola drink, it will bring about a refreshing and cooling sensation to a person. Out of these three learning theories, only the classical conditioning and the observational learning are being applied to the beer commercials. This commercial uses the Classical Conditioning theory. Most people would not normally associate beer with singing. But after being exposed to the commercial for mom time, a person would actually remembers the Heinlein beer commercial, and hopefully proceed to buy the beer. When a person watches the commercial for the first time, he/she will acquire the impression that the singing has nothing to do with the beer. However, the tastiness, â€Å"It seems some people didn’t take the last Heinlein commercial seriously. † And â€Å"Remember, buy Heinlein or we’ll keep running these commercials,† actually reveals the whole intention of the commercial. So eventually, they will associate the beer with the horrible singing. Scrabbles This commercial uses the Observational Learning. Firstly, when the customer buy the beer and gets a free toy, a person may also follow suit. The idea of an incentive or free-gift’ appeals very much to us Singapore who are very ‘kiss’ or have the â€Å"don’t want to lose out â€Å"attitude. So, when the customer is being apprehended by the police, gets locked up in a cell, and even having his beer confiscated, the observational learning still comes into play. This occurs when the policemen themselves drink the confiscated beer, giving them the impression that beers are better than diamonds. Therefore, giving viewers the notion that they should also buy Comparison The use of observational learning is more effective compared to classical conditioning. This is because the influences of an authoritative figure I. E. The policemen are brought into the picture. Therefore, it reinforces the observational learning. Like mentioned earlier, policemen are people of authority, therefore, if they were to do something that is generally not proper, which is in this case, drinking the confiscated beer, their actions would actually be socially accepted since they are people who are of higher authority than a normal civilian would be. The use of classical conditioning as a comparatively weaker impact to the audience in contrast to the use of observational learning. Since the stimulus of classical conditioning does not naturally bring about the response or interest to the beer, it can easily be forgotten if it is not reinforced. One-way for Heinlein to resolve this problem is to keep on playing the commercial. However, they would have to bear the costs incurred, and not forgetting, the contempt from irritated viewers who are forced to view the annoying commercial over and over again. 3. 2 Memory theory For this commercial, under the psychological theory of Memory, it â€Å"attacks† the ewer’s sensory memory, specifically the Echoic Memory. Thus, it makes the viewer able to react to the annoying singing by remembering the commercial better since it is using the audio element to etch the product into the viewer’s minds. The audio element is supposedly the most prominent sensory element of the commercial. Hence, the commercial will be played over and over again in the viewers’ mind. The point is, the viewer does not even have to view the commercial visually to have the desired impact of the commercial on the viewer. As mentioned before, the audio element is the strongest agenda of the whole commercial. For this commercial, using the same psychological theory of Memory, the commercial is appealing to the viewer’s sensory memory, especially the Iconic Memory to remember the product. As can be seen, we can work out with an example from the commercial that, the when the man buys the bottle of Scrabbles beer, and the cashier hands the buyer a soft toy, saying that it is a gift from buying the beer. â€Å"diamonds†, and the beer was confiscated along with him. Also, the makers of the commercial â€Å"attacks† the viewer’s minds in which that they ill remember that the buying the Scrabbles beer is so good that, the police officers are enjoying themselves so much. Since the policemen, as mentioned, are people with authority, drinking the Scrabbles beers that they confiscated are seemingly more significant. This also portrays a powerful signal that the beer can even tempt the authorities under work obligations. Hence, such actions are being socially accepted, therefore, the viewer’s implicit memory would subconsciously steer the viewer to buy Scrabbles beer. Both uses the same sensory theory and the only different is one, echoic and another, conic. Most commercial uses the echoic memory to remember, which in the Heinlein commercial you do not even need to use your eyes to watch and Just hear the songs they are singing is enough to serve the purpose. 3. 3) Motivation Theory Motivation is the factor that directs and invigorates the behavior of humans. Often, human motivation is driven by the intention, or arousal of achieving a goal. Primary drive are related to the biological needs that often helps to fulfill our basic needs, whereas secondary drive are prior to experience and learning that has no direct impact on our biological needs. In the two commercial that we have chosen, we can say that both commercials applies the secondary drive as both brings out the needs of a person to drink beer brought about by previous experience or learning. The main aim of the commercials that we have chosen was to motivate and attract the viewers to drink the respective brand of beer. Suggests that motivation stems from the desire to obtain valued external goals. The commercial started off with a seemly strange tagging – at least it is not common in most commercials that we see nowadays. It says, â€Å"It seems some people didn’t take the last Heinlein commercial seriously. Although viewers might first think the commercial is trying to reprimand them, but it is actually indirectly motivating viewers to direct their attention on the commercial, simply because they do not want to be wrongly accused of â€Å"not taking commercial or anything seriously’ and end off with a message when they got the attention by saying, â€Å"Remember, buy Heinlein, or we’ll keep on running these commercials. † This suggests the determination shown by the commercial in motivating viewers to at least try the product, and that reignites the desire of consumers to obtain the beer – external goals. Furthermore, it also intends to serve as a constant reminder to consumers to realize their highest potential through drinking Heinlein instead of other brand of beer. Scrabbles In the second commercial, more than one approach can be applied to the advertisement. Arousal Approach explains the increase of the stimulation and activity where people are willing to take the risk of getting caught by the police when purchasing the Scrabbles beer. Incentive Approach motivates people to buy Scrabbles beer, even the police whom are seen as protectors of the local people themselves are drinking Scrabbles. Hence, the impact and motivation, the local people receive when they revere to the police gives them the desire to obtain the same beer as their ‘protectors’. For Cognitive Approaches, the intrinsic motivation shows that the people are willing to buy the Scrabbles beer as it stimulates excitement for their own enjoyment whereas the extrinsic motivation, recognize the effort and give the soft toy as a reward. The need for affiliation was also applied on this commercial, the people who have seen the commercial will tend to follow what the police officers do because as the law enforcer, they themselves are drinking the confiscated Scrabbles. Therefore, drinking Scrabbles would be seen as a gateway in establishing bilateral ties and maintaining relationship with the police. This commercial also motivates the viewers to realize their sense of self-actualization, the state of self-fulfillment, which is the highest level of Mascots Hierarchy, in which people realize their highest potentials, as the Scrabbles beer is now within their reach. Both commercials in this case use different styles and strategies in motivating consumers to purchase their products. In the Heinlein commercial, it uses the reverse psychological principles whereby it is indirectly motivating consumers to buy the Heinlein beer and it consists of symbol captions, which enable the viewers to establish inner thoughts to achieve constant memory of the product as well as incur the desire to try or even have the product. As for the Scrabbles commercial, it uses a more direct style and hence is clearer to understand. It motivates consumers as it consists of various theories of motivation, which gives several different perspectives on motivation. Furthermore, it adds a lot of humbly into the commercial that requires consumers to reflect on the purpose of the commercial and what it signifies. For example, firstly the diamonds are hidden in the soft toy, and the police confiscate the toy containing the ‘stolen diamonds’ together with the Scrabbles beer. One scene where the innocent customers are trapped within a cell gives the impression of being ‘locked’. However, at the same time, the policemen are having a great time enjoying the confiscated beer. Hence, the Juxtaposition of the two agendas is basically trying to reinforce the point hat, without the beer, you would be miserable as signified by the customers being locked up and feeling miserable, yet at the same time, when you have the beer, you would be at the top of the mountain as portrayed by the policemen merrily drinking away. These metaphors and symbols are worth looking into as they indirectly motivate viewers to buy the beer and act as an unconscious motivation tool. 3. 4) Social Psychology Theory This commercial uses the Persuasion Theory. It is a process of changing attitude. How to cite How Psychological Theories Have Been Used in Beer, Papers