A child's learning process begins as soon as he enters the world. From the first seconds, a child learns through observation, identification, processing and analysis of the details of the environment around him. They watch and listen carefully, slowly piecing together each image, sound and interaction. These pieces then serve as clues, defining socially accepted and expected behaviors. Children process basic human relationships and the world around them not only through first-person experience, but also through modern cultural events such as television, the Internet, and literature. It is crucial for young children to witness both positive and negative aspects of society, so that they can form ideas and opinions that will guide them as adults. A formal education provides children with a way to explore, test, and reject or accept these thoughts. As parents' paranoia increases, hoping to protect their children's innocence in a mature world, many schools, public and private, have begun to censor students' literary selection, Internet use and freedom of expression in student publications. However, by censoring school literature and Internet exploration, as well as students' ability to publish their personal thoughts, schools restrict the social and mental abilities of students during the most influential and impressionable stage of their development. The term “censorship” comes from the Latin censere. , “give your opinion, evaluate” (Culture shock: who decides? How and why?: definitions of censorship). Contrary to this seemingly simple definition, contemporary usage offers no agreed-upon definition of the term or its proper usage, most notably regarding the highly controversial...... middle of article......ehr, S. “Literacy, literature and censorship: the high cost of leaving no child behind.” Childhood Education 87.1 (2010): 25-34. Career and Technical Education, ProQuest. Internet. December 6, 2011. Maycock, A. (2011). Issues and trends in intellectual freedom for teacher librarians: Where we have come from and where we are going. Teacher-Librarian, 39(1), 8-12. Retrieved December 6, 2011, from Research Library. (Document ID: 2505611051). Simmons, John S. and Eliza T. Dresang. School Censorship in the 21st Century: A Guide for Teachers and School Library Media Specialists. Newark, DE: International Reading Association, 2001. Print. Taylor, Stuart Jr. “Court Hears School Censorship Case – New York Times.” The New York Times October 14, 1987. Nytimes.com. The New York Times. Internet. December 6. 2011. .