Have You Read It In Its Entirety? Really?

I'm a teacher.  (I've taught at the junior high, high school, and university levels in the U.S. and the U.K.)

Regarding the suggestion that certain books should be banned from libraries, school curriculums, etc., it has been my experience that this type of debate usually comes down to two general groups of people.

The first group is composed of folks who wish to ban the book in question, whatever that book happens to be.  If you push them on the subject, one discovers that most of these folks have not read the book they wish to ban--or they have read only certain excepts which, shorn of context, can be used to argue for just about any agenda, political or otherwise.

The second group is generally composed of folks who have read the entire book in question and, regardless of whether they "like" it or not, do not want the book to be banned.

So far in my career, I've always been in the second group; it would have to be a very, very odd situation indeed for me to stand with the first group.  Yet what I cannot imagine ever doing is making a decision one way or the other regarding a particular book without first having read it carefully and in its entirety, away from those who would like to whisper their agendas in my ear.