Binary Opposition in Censorship

Censorship is an issue full of binary oppositions. The issue could not be extenuated without opposition from one side to the other. What is moral, what is immoral, who is right; parents or teachers, and art vs. pornography. These oppositions are the main points in each debate about censorship. Even the fight against censorship can be a binary; censors may inadvertently censor others while fighting censorship. The results of the fight over censorship ends in a binary; the informed vs. the uninformed. The issue of knowledge affects both sides of the fight. A librarian or teacher may not know the rules by which they can fight censorship and will submit without a fight. Censors may not even have read the books that they fight to censor.

The first binary of censorship is the most immediate opposition of parent vs. teacher. Children are brought up in schools to learn about the world around them. The job of the schools is to educate the child in the ways of the society they are a part of. This act of schooling has been defined as the Indoctrination Theory. "Children are to assimilate accepted attitudes and learn basic skills and a prescribed body of knowledge." (Oboler, 152) In view of this the school is allowed to do what they can to make children learned and critical of their surroundings. This can mean that certain types of literature must be read or certain activities performed to enhance a subject matter.

Parents must raise and parent their children in the way that they see fit. They have their own set of ideals and thoughts that they wish to instill in a child. Parents are there to remove anything that may harm their offspring mentally and physically. When something happens in school that they do not approve of the parents take action.