I don't think that its such a bad idea to let this book be republished, in fact I am interested in reading it just from a historical perspective. The book just needs to be read with some context.



I do not feel that any book should be censored, although i can see why some would. It is about why you read a book, not whats in the book that matters, and thats not something that anyone has any power over. For example, if I were to read "The Satanic Bible" by Anton LaVey it would be from curiosity, to see what ideas came from it, and not from a "awe and worship" point of view. that being said I know that its not really a "bible" per say, more of a book about living life from a selfish point of view.



I'm not sure on this, I take more of a middle of the road approach here. I think that not all books should be available to high school students to check out on their own. On the other hand I like what happened to me in high school. I wanted to do a book report on The Catcher in the Rye. I needed to get a note from my parents saying that they knew that I would be reading the book and that I had permission from them to do so. High school students are, for the most part, minors. I think with parental consent that a student should be allowed to read/research any book they wish.



I'm not sure exactly what books would fit either of these list as I am not an avid reader of "controversial" books, but as I said in my previous point, I think that a student should not be told they can not read a book if they have approval from the teacher(related to the coursework) and the parents (mostly to allow the parents some control on how they wish to raise their child). If the student is over 18 I think they should be allowed to read whatever they want.



Personally i think that they have a very limited selection at schools, but i understand why. They do not wish to be under pressure from the parents to censor. Most towns have a very well stocked public library for the more motivated student.


I do think that schools have a very "propaganda" like curriculum. For instance they cover WWII heavily, but spend a total of 10 minutes covering the "Trail of Tears" (aka the genocide of the Native American people). This is not unexpected, as they are government run schools in America. They tend to cover history from a purely american perspective.



I can't really comment on the rest of the questions, but I would love if the schools had more free choice on what to read for the students. I see how this wouldn't really work as most students are completely uninterested in proper literature, and I do not wish "twilight" to be on my future son/daughter's curriculum. When I attended high school, I found the teachers very willing to help me when I chose to read books that were not on the curriculum.

In closing, if the parents and teachers work together, I see no reason why a student shouldn't be able to do a report or research on books like Mein Kampf. Under proper context books like that can be very interesting and educational.