Anti-book ban people are so weird

First of all, I'm not a conservative, based on my other votes. I just think it's super strange that people like slapping the "banned books" label on books just to get people to read them. I'm a high school English teacher, and I think it's bullshit because I believe parents should have a say in what their kids have access to. <br><br>This is for grades 9-12, so 14-18 year olds. I have as a classroom library, and it's comprised of whatever books I could scrounge from my own collection, garage sales, Goodwill, and donations. I don't have a lot of books, but enough to rotate between every 2 weeks or so, and enough variety for a small class to pick a few books out here and there. <br><br>I had to remove so many books because of "mature themes," and it really is a double standard. A lot of parents won't let their kids watch horrormovies, but it's okay for them to read about brutal murders, and gore, that goes beyond what's in most horror movies because you can visualize and internalize it in a way you can't with a movie. I had to get rid of my copy of Carrie because it was so graphic and mature, but it's a classic and people still go on and on about it being such an important and influential book. I think it is too, but it doesn't belong in high school classrooms. <br><br>There are tons of books for all ages, and all reading levels, to choose from, and we can take those and avoid the ones that are going to upset parents. Parents are all too happy to allow their kids to read books that will make them uncomfortable because they're worried about seeming bigoted or oppressive to their kids, and I don't think that's a fair parent/child dynamic. <br><br>I think it's really gross that book banning has become the "cool" thing, because it's not. Book banning/BURNING was done in the past in relation to the Holocaust and now it's touted as this awesome, rebellious thing to do, and it's not. I can understand some of it, but I think it's bullshit that it applies to books like To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Merchant of Venice just because of outdated language and customs. I'm not going to defend the language or customs of the past, but if you want to understand them, you need to read about it from the people who were there.