Censorship 101

Kerry Howley | June 2, 2003

Dianne Ravitch, former assistant secretary in the Department of Education, has just written a book that lists the 500 sinister words banned from U.S. textbooks. Apparently, the culturally sensitive avoid any reference to polo (elitist), boyish figures (sexist), and blindness (just offensive).

Comments

Sandy|6.2.03 @ 6:29AM|#

Damn, don't they realize how long it took me to describe the historic contributions of the visually-challenged female equestrian malletteer who was able to break the gender barrier of unfairly-advantaged sports by dressing in an alternative but equally viable lifestyle fashion, which deception (alternate but equally valid conception of 'reality') was facilitated by hyr anti-stereotypical body shape that refused to be pigeonholed in a gender role?

|6.2.03 @ 6:36AM|#

isn't this old news?

|6.2.03 @ 7:47AM|#

I wish they'd ban ``rutilant'' and ``inerrable.''

david f|6.2.03 @ 8:21AM|#

"peanut" is on the list, too. for all of those who have hysterical, imagined, projected, monkey-see-monkey-do, and (even) real peanut allergy.

rrrriiiigggghhhhttttt.
(good one, sandy),

cheers,
drf

|6.3.03 @ 2:01AM|#

Well, oddly enough, I just got done with a presentation on the state of education for my Sociology of Education class a week or two ago.

Anywho, Yes - this is indeed the state of education. It is utterly redicious.

Today's textbooks are mostly made by the few major companies still left. And yes, they are mainly published for the two largest markets, California and Texas. Unfortunatly, citizens groups are not the ones who affect the books, rather it is the extremist groups who have the largest effect, as they are the best organized, and most dedicated to their (absolutly looney) causes.

An excellent book on this process, showing the unholy influences of the moral zealots and the fem-nazi's contribution to publisher self-censorship to meet these types, is "The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn" by Diane Ravitch ISBN: 0375414827

Walmart Online has a copy for cheap: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=2070390&sourceid=40566662962845010637

-Robert

J.Neighbors|6.3.03 @ 3:54AM|#

Robert, you need to click those orange, underlined LINKS once in a while. (You mention the very book the link "banned" pointed to.)

Hello?

Mona Arnitzen|6.3.03 @ 5:41AM|#

Well now, is this really what's happening out there in the world of government schooling?

I had no idea!

For the past 10 years, I've been blissfully educating my kids at home, using private libraries, and recently, the Internet (bless this thing.)

When they were younger, my kids enjoyed (the unadulterated) Cinderellas, Snow Whites, and anything by Grimm and H.C. Anderson.

I feel truly sorry for today's kids who have to run this government-school gauntlet.

Croesus|6.3.03 @ 11:37AM|#

Aren't most textbook decisions made in places like Texas and California, by citizen groups?

Anonymous|6.4.03 @ 6:07AM|#

Yes, this is old news. (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,85594,00.html)

And it's DIANE Ravitch.