Textbooks and "Banned Words"...

[Figrin D'an]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/EDUCATION/05/28/life.language.reut/index.html

Things like this make me weep for the future of the educational system... at least there is someone speaking out on it.

[Lann]

Oh my god, this is creepy like from a Orwell novel or something. We just can't sensitize the world around us. And yet people will have a hairball about conservative right-wingers. Well, what about these liberal politically correct left-wingers? Both have gone way too far!!!

[Sejah Haversh]

As an author (almost), I am disgusted by this type of behavior toward literiture.

We chose our words carefully, craft sentences and paragraphs to our want. Once printed, they are not subject to anyone else's interpretation or modification. What I write is what I mean to say, and if anyone ever tried to dumb it down, I will bring a heavy lawsuit on their butt.

In the case of "The Older Person and the Water" being the new name for "The Old Man and the Sea" because it implied agist, and sexist thinking, as well as a kind thought to those who live too far inland to understand a large body of water, I say this:

The book is about a man. The man is old. And who the heck can't imagine a large body ow water? We all have television, don't we? We've all seen Baywatch. The reader of this newly titled version will feel insulted that it was changed as not to offend them. Hemingway was offensive, that's how he was, and that is why he is still read, and his books still tought.

If they so much as change one word in any book, I will not let them whine about curriculums being "Dumbed-down" and students not learning real-life things. For by changing them, they are sheltering them from the truth, and not letting them get a full education.

Changing words, or removing them never helps anyone. If it is offensive, so be it. Controversy inspires thought, and thought fuels learning.

[Marcus Telcontar]

1984 is coming - it was just titled about 30 years too early.

[Darth Viscera]

Not for us, we don't live in Oceana (or is it Ociana?) :D

You Britons on the other hand, you're screwed. Say hello to Minilove!

[Charley]

Hooray for social democracy. Don't want to offend anybody, now.

[Droo]

Absolutely disgraceful. The people who impose these rulings are just downright stupid and there really is no other way to describe them. They don't deserve the power they possess.

[Alpha]

This is a bunch of BS...I can't believe they're dumbing school kids down this much!

[ReaperFett]

I've been on a Yacht. Was cheap as well. Does that make me elite?


She says a lot of people are having fun finding new titles for Ernest Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" which presents problems with every word except "and" and "the." Ravitch said old is ageist, man is sexist and sea can't be used in case a student lives inland and doesn't grasp the concept of a large body of water.
Idiots :lol

[JediBoricua]

This is very sad.

Here is also happening. The Education Dept. refused to buy a history textbook because it only had the puertorican flag on the cover and since it was a pro statehood administration they forced the publisher to add an american flag.

[Dae Jinn]

Like school kids nowadays aren't stupid enough :rolleyes

[Lann]

Yeah, as our youth turns into a bunch of plastic politically-correct social zombies. Talk about brain damage. Heh.

[Camdyn Fields]

I'm sorry, but I dont see how kids can fail highschool courses. I have two younger siblings who are in highschool. They're both smart kids, but their grades suck.

If it's not stupidity, it's laziness. :lol

[Jedi Master Carr]

That is completely stupid and horrible I fear for the future maybe Orwell was on to something.

[Telan Desaria]

As a point, North America in its entirity was a part of Oceania not just England/Airstrip 1. The photo of the deceased party boss that the main character was to incinerate was taken in New York.

I am glad that due to both my homosexuality and militant personality, I will not live to see this ultimate dumbification of the world and its complete domination by the politically correct.

[Droo]

In this case idiotically correct.

[Jinn Fizz]

I've read other articles about this book, The Language Police, and I've been very interested in reading it. The only thing is, I think it would make me too sad. It's all just so pathetically stupid! :cry

[Jedieb]

Ravitch said that textbook publishing is controlled by four main publishers and they aim to sell texts state by state, thus forcing them to dumb down the books and make the language as inoffensive as possible. "They don't want controversy and they don't want people screaming," she said.



This really isn't something new. American textbooks and textbook publishers have produced some pretty craptacular tomes for decades. There's an excellent book titled "Lies My Teacher Told Me" that addresses this issue.

As a teacher, poor textbooks are the LEAST of my problems. I'm insulated from the problem to an extent because I'm an Elementary school teacher. The parolee Mom who can't get 3 of her 8 kids to school on time is my major headache. Textbooks become much more crucial in Middle and High School. I would always students to read materials OUTSIDE of the curriculum. But getting some students to read ANYTHING is a nightmare.

[Telan Desaria]

Anywhere in the world, this is a problem. Children are becoming more stupid because the standards we hold them to are dropping. Instead of doing our damndest to bring them into the realm of average and intellectual, we lower our standards and thus expect less and less with every student to stride through a gymnasium door.

Things my 10-year olrd cousin does in grammar school I would have completed before the end of my third year. And she is in her sixth. What does that say? And I am not that old.....

[Ryla Relvinian]

All hail the destruction of the vernacular.

*goes out to play on the freeway*

And Telan, you are totally right. Standards are so low, the litle gremlins get away with the lowest quality work that even when I was in elementary school it wouln't be tolerated. I distinctly remember my first experience with lowered standards: It was in a 4 person group project, and I ended up doing over half the work whilst the other three (and one hoodlum who didn't do jack squat) all got my good grade. Meow. :P

[Telan Desaria]

Endium Intelligencia

The End of the (Mentally gifted)