Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 439, Talking About Censorship.
This is English as a Second Language podcast number 439.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Go there to download a learning guide for this episode to help you improve your English even faster.
Thank you so much for having me.
And the parents have a meeting and they're discussing what to do about certain books that are in the school's library or that the teachers are using.
This is often a problem in the U.S.
Some parents may not like the books that the children are being asked to read or that are available to them.
Let's get started.
The school that my daughter attends is trying to decide whether or not to ban certain books which some parents think are inappropriate.
The school called a parents' meeting.
At the meeting, one woman said Another parent responded That's absurd.
Another parent said, I don't like the way this book portrays history.
To me, it's morally objectionable.
Still, another parent complained.
There is too much graphic violence in these books and I won't allow my son to be exposed to it.
A parent stood up and yelled, People who want to ban books are fear-mongering.
The meeting turned into a shouting match.
If you ask me, I'm very glad that none of the students were at this meeting.
They would be learning an important lesson, but not one that any parent would want.
Our story is called Talking About Censorship.
Censorship means not allowing certain things to be seen or heard or published, because you perhaps the visual images that are part of that thing.
Censorship usually is considered a negative thing, at least in American society, but of course it all depends on who you talk to.
The story begins by saying that the school that my daughter attends my daughter goes to, is a student at, is trying to decide whether or not to ban certain books.
To ban, B-A-N, means not to allow something to be used, bought, seen, or heard.
The university bans cigarette smoking in all of its buildings.
That means that it's not allowed.
Most restaurants in many cities in the US have smoking bans.
You cannot smoke there.
To ban can also mean not to allow certain books in the library or certain movies to be shown in a city or town.
The meeting of the parents then is to discuss whether they should ban certain books from the school, not allow them to be there.
Of course, all schools ban certain books that are, for example, considered pornographic or magazines that are not appropriate for young children, So it isn't really a question of banning or not banning.
It's deciding which things you're going to ban.
Some parents think that there are books that are inappropriate.
This means they are not right for someone in a particular situation.
That could include books that young children, for example, shouldn't be reading because they're not right for their age.
The school called a parent's meeting to talk over the issue or to talk the issue over.
To talk over something is a phrasal verb meaning to talk about something, to discuss something.
One woman said, Something that is obscene, O-B-S-C-E-N-E, means it is very offensive.
It causes people to get angry or upset because it is dirty in a sexual or a hateful way.
So pornography, for example showing sexual scenes of men and women, in certain cases could be considered by some people obscene.
The woman says, I don't want my children reading that filth.
Filth, F-I-L-T-H, means dirt or garbage.
Here it's being used to say that something is very wrong, something is unclean or disgusting.
When a parent describes a book as being filth, they usually mean that it is sexually inappropriate for a given student.
Well, another parent said that's absurd.
Something that is absurd is something that would be illogical, not logical, not rational, silly.
The parent says, haven't you ever heard of free speech?
Free speech in the United States means the freedom or ability to say and write just about anything you want.
It's part of our U.S.
Constitution that people have freedom of speech or free speech.
The government tries not to limit free speech, although free speech is not absolute.
That is, there are cases where things cannot be said.
Schools, for example, do not give their students complete freedom of speech.
This parent says banning books violates everything we Americans believe in.
To violate here means to go against something, to break a law or break a rule or break a principle, to go against our beliefs.
It goes against or violates everything we Americans believe in.
To believe in means to think that something is good.
You believe something is correct.
Another parent said, I don't like the way this book portrays history.
To portray P-O-R-T-R-A-Y here means to represent something, to express something in a certain way.
The way something is described or illustrated, parent says to me, this book is morally objectionable.
Moral refers to right or wrong.
Objectionable is something that you don't like, something that you disagree with.
So something morally objectionable is something that a person doesn't believe in or goes against his or her beliefs of what is right and wrong.
Another parent complained.
Graphic violence is violence that is described or shown in a lot of detail.
You don't have to use your imagination.
It's described or shown in the book or in the movie.
This parent does not want her child to be exposed to it meaning to be allowed to see or hear something, not to be protected from something.
The verb exposed has a couple of different meanings.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
You'll also find some additional meanings of the verb to ban, which we talked about at the beginning of this episode.
Another parent stood up and yelled, People who want to ban books are fear-mongering.
To fear-monger means to use fear effectively to change people's opinions about something, to frighten people to do something, by talking about the terrible things that will happen, things that they will find fearful or will be afraid of.
They don't give our kids enough credit.
Not to give someone credit or enough credit here means not to believe that someone is capable of doing something or not to think that someone can do something.
If your friend says to you here, let me talk to that girl and ask her if she wants to go on a date with you, You might say, give me a little credit, meaning you are not believing in my capabilities.
You don't think that I can do something, but I can.
The story ends, the meeting turned into a shouting match.
A shouting match is a loud conversation that has people yelling at each other.
They're trying to express their opinions, but it ends up being more people yelling and not listening to each other.
So a shouting match is usually a bad thing.
The story ends by the man saying that...
He's glad the students, their children, were not there because the parents did not act like adults.
They started yelling at each other rather than talking about things in a reasonable way.
Now let's listen to the story, this time at a normal speed.
The school that my daughter attends is trying to decide whether or not to ban certain books which some parents think are inappropriate.
The school called a parents meeting to talk over the issue.
At the meeting, one woman said, The books on this list are obscene.
I don't want my children reading that filth.
Another parent responded, That's absurd.
Haven't you ever heard of free speech?
Banning books violates everything we Americans believe in.
Another parent said.
Still another parent complained There's too much graphic violence in these books and I won't allow my son to be exposed to it.
A parent stood up and yelled, The meeting turned into a shouting match.
If you ask me, I'm very glad that none of the students were at this meeting.
They would be learning an important lesson, but not one that any parent would want.
The script for this episode was written by someone who never writes things that are inappropriate.
Dr Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
This podcast is copyright 2008.
