Challenge 2.0 What is Lost When Books are Banned

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The George Orwell novel 1984 describes an era ruled by thought police with those who evade book bans charged with ‘thought crimes’. Ironically, as book bans are increasing rapidly in the United States, the Orwellian novel is among those books most frequently challenged and banned from classrooms and school libraries. The American Library Association reports that 2022 was a record year for banning books, with more than 1200 demands to remove books from libraries and schools, and that 2023 is likely to exceed that number. It has become a form of entertainment, as some local groups offer beer and babysitting together with book ban votes. What is the cost of such censorship to our educational system and country? That’s the subject of this edition of Challenge 2.0