The Rose Poet
I’ve found a love for poetry while in college. I became an avid scholar, reader, and writer. I knew from an early age that my education would depend on the exposure I discovered myself, and I knew I could not rely solely on the education I was obtaining from the small rural town I grew up in.
While in college studying for my bachelor’s degree, I became too familiar with the gaps in my education. I was confronted with a glaring gap in my education in my 19th-century literature class when the topic of Mark Twain’s novels The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was being discussed.
My professor said,” You probably read these texts in middle or high school.” I felt embarrassment creeping its way into my chest. No, I didn’t read either of those texts. I watched as others nodded in agreement with the professor, some classmates sharing what they could recall about the two novels.
I wondered why I hadn’t read those texts. Was it a lack of motivated teachers? The product of coming from a small-town school? Or was it my ignorance for not preparing myself better? When class ended, I immediately downloaded the two texts onto my Kindle book app. I figured I’d read them myself since I was now, in my mind, behind my peers.
What truly constitutes great literature, and how do we gain exposure to it? Literature is consumed in various formats now, from physical books to electronic books to what we read on social media. Have others felt similarly hindered in their educational journey? Teachers cannot expose us to every book there is. Did the infamous statement of “You probably read this in junior high or high school” ever make you squirm in your seat, nodding in agreement with classmates, co-workers, friends, or family, knowing you’d never read the text being discussed? Did embarrassment make you question the knowledge you acquired in school, no matter your level of education?
It wasn’t until I investigated further into the matter that I realized why I was never taught certain information. Teachers were bound by school and state laws or policies that prevented certain material from reaching students. If the state deemed a novel inappropriate, then it wasn’t read. Then the question would arise, “Why?” Why are we banning books or censoring texts?
These questions often make me think of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and 1984 by George Orwell. Both are banned books. The novels explore the fictional scenario of the effects of banning or censoring information to the public. It emulates the power connews structs of control and how society will acquire knowledge; if you erase or take that knowledge, you can gain control of a society. This is exhibited currently in today’s literature; if anyone has read the Fourth Wing series by Rebecca Yarros, you’ll see her encapsulate the same ideology as Bradbury and Orwell.
How many young adults will continue to be deprived of literature due to the influence of censorship in educational institutions? How will society gain information when they don’t know it exists? How many will fall to the effects of literary micro-invalidity? Knowledge is power, and lack of knowledge or exposure leads to sheep among wolves.