1. Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication or other information which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, politically incorrect or inconvenient as determined by governments, media outlets, authorities or other such entities. WHAT IS CENSORSHIP?

2. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. 1 ST AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION

3. "Book burning" refers to the ritual destruction by fire of books or other written materials. Usually carried out in a public context, the burning of books represents an element of censorship and usually proceeds from a cultural, religious, or political opposition to the materials in question. WHAT IS BOOK BURNING?

4. In a symbolic act of ominous significance, on May 10, 1933, university students burned upwards of 25,000 volumes of “un-German” books, presaging an era of state censorship and control of culture. On the evening of May 10, in most university towns, right-wing students marched in torchlight parades “against the un-German spirit.” These book burnings took place when Ray Bradbury was 15 and had a significant impact on him. He cites these book burnings as the reason for basing Fahrenheit 451 on the issue. MAY 10, 1933 NAZI BOOK BURNING IN BERLIN

5. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?Mo duleId=10005852 http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?Mo duleId=10005852 WATCH THIS CLIP FROM THE NAZI BOOK BURNING

6. http://www.ala.org/bbooks/top-100-bannedchallenged-books-2000-2009 http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10 Which ones have you read? LOOK AT THESE LISTS OF THE MOST CHALLENGED BOOKS

7. Over this recent past decade, 5,099* challenges were reported to the Office for Intellectual Freedom. 1,577 challenges due to "sexually explicit" material; 1,291 challenges due to "offensive language"; 989 challenges due to materials deemed "unsuited to age group"; 619 challenged due to "violence"' and 361 challenges due to "homosexuality." Further, 274 materials were challenged due to "occult" or "Satanic" themes, an additional 291 were challenged due to their "religious viewpoint," and 119 because they were "anti-family." Please note that the number of challenges and the number of reasons for those challenges do not match, because works are often challenged on more than one ground. BOOKS ARE MOST COMMONLY CHALLENGED FOR THE FOLLOWING REASONS: *THIS DATA IS FROM BOOKS CHALLENGED 2000-2009

8. 1,639 of these challenges were in school libraries; 1,811 were in classrooms; 1,217 took place in public libraries. There were 114 challenges to materials used in college classes; and 30 to academic libraries. There are isolated cases of challenges to library materials made available in or by prisons, special libraries, community groups, and students. The vast majority of challenges were initiated by parents (2,535), with patrons and administrators to follow (516 and 489 respectively). MORE FACTS ABOUT CHALLENGES:

9. Is censorship ever ok or necessary? In what situations? Is censorship dangerous? Why? Should “bad” or harmful ideas be censored? Why or why not? What point is Bradbury making this quote: “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” RESPOND TO THE FOLLOWING QUESTION ON YOUR NOTES PAGE: