Reflections on Research and Advocacy Against Book Bans

Maya Abdul-Rassoul, Verrazzano Class of 2024, completed major in English Literature (7-12), and minor in English Writing

My capstone research on the detrimental consequences of book banning was eye-opening. As an English major, I was drawn to the concept of working on a study revolving books, but as an education major, I needed to fuse the two together seamlessly.

Books and their validity in the educational realm have been a topic of conversation lately, and I felt like researching the negative consequences of book banning was the perfect fit. The fact that it was such a hot button issue though, both held me back and also motivated me, to develop and put forth research that defended the validity of books and their place in the educational system.

While I had always thought of book banning as simply censorship, digging and researching further revealed the actual complexity behind the subject at hand with significant consequences for educational and intellectual freedom.

Throughout the course of my research, I was struck by the detrimental and overwhelmingly negative impact that book bans had on student learning, especially the hinderance of their cognitive empathy and critical thinking skills. It baffles me that there is so much research presented on how detrimental the effects are on students, yet there is still a push for books to be banned in order to preserve a traditional, conservative ideology.

Books that inspired me to become an educator in the field of English are on the chopping block and have even been removed from entire school districts. Books that explore the devastatingly complex history of slavery like Toni Morrison’s Beloved or books that address the negative consequences of the abuse of governmental power like Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale or George Orwell’s 1984 have been restricted, questioned, and in some cases, entirely removed from districts. Promoting the idea that understanding life from the lenses of people who differ in race, gender, and overall circumstance is something to be avoided, and a homogenous view of life and a certain set of beliefs is the “correct” or “only proper way” to live life.

This research was mentally and physically taxing, but the payoff restored that energy and served as a mental and physical reward. Seeing my research done in its entirety was the physical reward, but obtaining the knowledge and understanding behind book banning and its negative impacts has sparked a much stronger passion within me in regards to educating students equitably and inclusively.

The topic of book banning has been more than ever on the rise, and frankly, there is not enough research under the belts of anti-book banning advocates. I would hope to develop a book out of my research if I could expand upon it further with actual conducted studies. I would look across varying school districts with banned books, and those without, to compare standardized testing, cognitive empathy, and even critical thinking. I believe that the more studies are conducted and available to the public, the more awareness and advocacy will be in place to support students’ academic freedom
alongside fostering their empathy and critical thinking skills.

Discovering the Messages Nature Shares Through Poetry

Savannah Cseko, Verrazzano Class of 2024, completed major in English Literature (7-12)

When deciding on a topic to create my capstone project on, I instantly knew that I wanted to work with free verse poetry. Back in my junior year of college I took an American poetry course with Professor Timothy Gray, and I quickly became drawn to the poetry of James Wright. I appreciated how vividly Wright described landscapes of the rural world, and the personal insight he would get from these various places in nature.

I expressed to Professor Gray that I was interested in writing my capstone paper to further explore Wright’s poetry, but I also wanted to look at other poets as well. This is when Professor Gray suggested I take a look at Mary Oliver, a free verse nature poet. I immediately became captivated by the sense of freedom in Oliver’s poetry, which is revealed through the revelations she received by immersing herself in the primitive world.

After I was able to narrow my search to James Wright and Mary Oliver, I began my research on both of them. I discovered that both Oliver and Wright have a connection, since they were both born and raised in suburbs in Ohio, and Oliver herself even brought up this connection in her own poem dedicated to Wright. After Wright passed away in 1980, Oliver wrote a sequence titled: Three Poems for James Wright, where she stated that she thought Ohio would “fall down” with Wright after his death.

Through my research, I was also able to discover that both Wright and Oliver overcame the various struggles life threw at them, and there is a clear theme of perseverance in both of their works.

However, I also got to discover each poet's personal style as well through this process, which does make their messages vary slightly. Wright is much more of an introspective poet, using “I” frequently in his poems, and using the scenery around him to help him through his struggle of depression. He was also a poet who appreciated listening to the various creatures, such as ants, crickets and horses, by getting to a place of stillness and silence to understand their value.

Oliver, however, is much more upfront in her poetry, often by using “you” and “we” in her work to invite the reader and to communicate directly with them. I was able to see through studying Oliver’s work that the primitive world is crucial to her, and I got to understand what exactly is meant by the primitive world.

To Oliver, the primitive world is a state of the physical; it is not a metaphor but rather being engaged with the natural world with every sense possible. Oliver is easily able to morph into this world and is quite comfortable there, especially in her Pulitzer Prize winning book of poetry, American Primitive.

Interestingly though, Wright and Oliver were both met with some criticism and not as much recognition as they deserved. Wright is argued by scholars that he is too sentimental and writes of experiences that can’t possibly be real, but I argue that the love he writes about between animals is absolutely real. As for Oliver, her blending of her poetry with the primitive world leaves little room for lines in between, which can be somewhat uncomfortable and not traditional. Yet I argue this is what makes Oliver so unique and daunting, and is especially refreshing in her work.

Overall, studying James Wright and Mary Oliver in such detail was an eye-opening experience for me, and I definitely plan to study their works more to develop my project further and my own personal understanding of them as poets. I am eager to check out more of Oliver’s newer poems from before she passed away, and as for Wright, I would like to examine his earlier works in more detail, especially since he originally was not a free verse poet. In his most famous book of poetry, The Branch Will Not Break, this is mainly where he starts writing in free verse and breaks his own barriers, but exploring his earlier works will help give me a clear contrast. Furthermore, I am eager to further research both of these free verse poets, since their work has already been so enlightening for me.