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ENH295

So, What’s This Banned Books Course About?

People have actually banned books in the US. That’s censorship. What about the 1st Amendment? And who are they to tell us what we can read? We are going to read some of those books and learn about why books have been banned or challenged and by whom. Books are often challenged or banned due to an individual or group of individuals considering the book to be controversial, immoral, inappropriate, sexually explicit, divisive, corrupt, vulgar, violent, or even wicked. Unfortunately, challenged and banned books are often valuable, classic works of literature. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton are just a few of the many books that have been challenged or banned.

We will read literature dealing with issues of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, religion, and political perspective. But the best part about this class is we get to read interesting books and we get to talk about them publicly. We also get to make a stance about our positions on freedom of speech and intellectual freedom.

*This course satisfies the humanities credit and the Cultural Awareness requirement for the AA degree.

List of Things to Do to Get Started

  1. Fill out the Student Information Form (http://tinyurl.com/39h9tfk). Your information is private, so don’t worry about sharing your information with me.
  2. Check your official school email (http://google.maricopa.edu) for the log-in information for the course website. Remember, you will use your MEID and password to access this email account. This is the same log-in you use to access Blackboard. If you don’t know this information, there is help on the right side of the page.
  3. Log into the course website: ENH295 Online (http://enh295online.com) and edit your profile and add a picture. See below the screencast on how to do this in case you need help.
  4. Create a post on your new blog on the ENH295 Online website. Title your post: Why Banned Books? Then write a quick post stating why you chose to take this class. This doesn’t have to be long. See below the screencast on how to do this in case you need help.
  5. Read the Syllabus and Modules and make sure you understand all of your responsibilities.
  6. Lastly, participate in the Week 1 Discussion. This discussion will end at the end of this week, so you have all week to participate.

Getting Started with ENH295: Banned Books & Censorship


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