Old subject - more horror (textbook censorship)

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-05-05 12:14pm

Old news, but it's even worse than I thought. Excerpt:

The National Post wrote:Study reveals textbook self-censorship

Adrian Humphreys
National Post

Monday, May 05, 2003

The classic children's story The Little Engine That Could has been banned in some U.S. jurisdictions because the train is male and The Friendly Dolphin rejected because it discriminates against students not living near the sea, according to a major study on education policy.

The study found officials who approve classroom materials want references to dinosaurs removed, because they prompt questions about evolution, and owls stricken as they are taboo for Navajo Indians.

Ketchup and french fries, bacon and eggs and ice cream and cake are also on the outs because of concerns over healthy eating habits.

Even birthday parties have been forbidden because they could upset children who do not get invited to them, says Dr. Diane Ravitch, author of The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn.

Dr. Ravitch studied education policy in the United States for three years, tracking policies of state authorities and local school boards, test-writing companies, review committee decisions, as well as in-house correspondence and style guides of publishing houses -- much of which was deemed secret and came to light only through court action.

She documents "an elaborate, well-established protocol of beneficent censorship, quietly endorsed and broadly implemented by textbook publishers, testing agencies, states, and the federal government."

"Educational materials are now governed by an intricate set of rules to screen out language and topics that might be considered controversial or offensive," she writes. "Some of this censorship is trivia, some is ludicrous, and some is breathtaking in its power to dumb down what children learn in school."

Censorship has become so entrenched that reworked titles are making their way into Canadian classrooms, Dr. Ravitch said yesterday.

"You will be encountering this if you are using the textbooks developed by any of the major publishers, and yes, Canada would be largely using the same books. The trend is spreading," she said.

Publishers are so fearful of their titles being blacklisted by major education authorities they voluntarily remove anything that could conceivably cause offence -- making classrooms an "empire of boredom" for young readers, who are forced to read nothing but "pap," Dr. Ravitch said.
Changes made to books and test questions, as documented by Dr. Ravitch, include:

Women are not portrayed as caregivers or as doing housework and men cannot be professionals such as lawyers, doctors or plumbers;

Elderly people must be active and not feeble;

Regional bias is to be stricken -- for instance a story of a mountain climber would discriminate against students who live in flat areas;

Girls cannot be depicted as watching sports, they must be playing them;

Children cannot be portrayed as questioning authority or being in conflict with adults;

Characters must not be orphans, ghosts or animals with negative or dirty associations, such as mice, bugs or scorpions;

Ethnic stereotypes must not be propagated, so people with Irish roots cannot be police officers and a black person cannot be an accomplished athlete.
In an interview, Dr. Ravitch -- a professor at New York University, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former education advisor for both Republican and Democrat presidents -- said the result is harmful to children.

"It bores the tears out of them and makes them cynical," she said. "The things around them are far more interesting than what they are finding in the classroom. The books can't portray what the children see before them with their own eyes so they dislike reading.

"The first requirement of good writing and good history is accuracy," she said.

"The bias and sensitivity reviewers work with assumptions that have the inevitable effect of stripping away everything that is potentially thought-provoking and colorful from the texts that children encounter."

The pressure on officials and publishers come from both the left and right of the political spectrum, Dr. Ravitch said.

The revision of materials started as a way of rooting out truly offensive material. Then politics entered the fray in earnest: While the left was ripping out material considered insensitive to multiculturalism or gender equality, the right was stripping out material deemed anti-family or pro-sex, she said.

The solution, she said, is to remove state and school board control of approved reading lists and trust teachers to select material appropriate for their specific classes.

Last month, an elementary workbook was removed from primary schools because it said Inuit people collect welfare and lack the skills to hold permanent jobs and that their traditional way of life was "no longer the right way to live."

Parent of pupils at an Iqaluit school complained about the references in Let's Visit Nunavut, a workbook produced by S&S Learning Materials, based in Napanee, Ont.

ahumphreys@nationalpost.com

Post by **NecronLord** » 2003-05-05 12:18pm

Ethnic stereotypes must not be propagated, so people with Irish roots cannot be police officers

Huh? I'm Irish (I even have an Irish passport and citizenship so no-one complain) and I see no problem at all with irish police officers.

What a steaming pile of crap.

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2003-05-05 12:33pm

Wonder if the fuddies ultimate goal is the total illiteracy(sp?) of everyone in the America?

The reason for this would be that uneducated people is easier to mold to their liking.

Darth Gojira · Post by **Darth Gojira** » 2003-05-05 12:33pm

Oooogh.........my head..........it's worse than I thought........aspirin....I need..aspirin. Great.....now...I...am...speaking....just.....like...Shatner......

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2003-05-05 01:06pm

Darth Wong wrote: Regional bias is to be stricken -- for instance a story of a mountain climber would discriminate against students who live in flat areas;

That's going to make for interesting storytelling-no mountains because of the people from the plains, no plains because of the mountainfolk, no cities because of the country folk, no rural settings because of city people...

'Close by, in the faraway desert jungle mountain plains of Whatthehell, lay a completely urbanized land with no cities or trees, but lots of forests...'

Good thing I'm doubly blessed-neither still in school NOR american...

This is so far beyond stupid it's not even in sensor range anymore

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2003-05-05 01:22pm

The crap gets deeper every day. Hope the soccer mom's who push for this crap are happy, heck, back in tha' day, we had stories of a HUNTER in my reading book. And some of the stuff in classic literature would be downright obscene to these people.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-05-05 01:24pm

Nathan F wrote:The crap gets deeper every day. Hope the soccer mom's who push for this crap are happy, heck, back in tha' day, we had stories of a HUNTER in my reading book. And some of the stuff in classic literature would be downright obscene to these people.

It's not just "soccer moms", although they're an easy target. Pressure for this bullshit comes from both sides of the political spectrum. The real problem is the underlying mentality that children must be "protected" from facts and ideas which are deemed offensive, even if they happen to be true.

David · Post by **David** » 2003-05-05 01:35pm

Yeah my HG&D prof. brought in a guest speaker for a class. She is a writer, and she told us about a children's book she wrote. Basically the book was about why the flag should be respected as a symbol of freedom and the sacrifice of our military people for it. She took the book to 30 different publishing companies and all of them turned it down. In their words, " It's to patriotic." Turns out that nearly all publishing companies in America are owned by companies from Europe, like in Germany and the Netherlands. Then September 11th happened and 15 of those companies lost their headquarters in the towers. I wonder if they would have picked the books up after that?

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2003-05-05 01:35pm

And then people wonder why we're consistently the stupidest first world nation on the globe.

David · Post by **David** » 2003-05-05 01:36pm

Nathan F wrote:The crap gets deeper every day. Hope the soccer mom's who push for this crap are happy, heck, back in tha' day, we had stories of a HUNTER in my reading book. And some of the stuff in classic literature would be downright obscene to these people.

Indeed, have you read any of Hemmingway's stories?

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi · Post by **Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi** » 2003-05-05 01:52pm

Good God.

Does anyone seriously think anyone thinks any of the stuff they're tageting is offensive? What's next, will they be after Doug for depicting green-skinned people in a negative manner?

I think it's a damn outrage, and this rampant PC stuff should be stopped.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-05-05 02:19pm

Darth Wong wrote:It's not just "soccer moms", although they're an easy target. Pressure for this bullshit comes from both sides of the political spectrum. The real problem is the underlying mentality that children must be "protected" from facts and ideas which are deemed offensive, even if they happen to be true.

Well, the "soccer moms" of both sides have been the driving force behind most of this kind of crap. Every time Junior feels bad about something at school (no matter what it is), they launch a crusade to fix the problem.

It is the notion that children must be protected taken to insane levels. Both sides have peddled this crap because it's an easy sell and frankly it does allow them to peddle their crap to kids easier. When a kid isn't really capable of thinking on their own they buy whatever BS people tell them.

I just wonder when it's going to stop or if PC crap is going to bring down western civilization simply because we're too fucking ignorant to do better.

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2003-05-05 03:19pm

I guess being human is politicaly incorrect now.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2003-05-05 03:27pm

I'm glad I'll be teaching high school, where the kids are old enough to understand when I say, "Ignore the textbook here, here, and here--the writers are full of shit." I had high school teachers, in fact, who told us to take the book home on the first day and leave it there, because it was useless.

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2003-05-05 06:24pm

Darth Wong wrote:
Nathan F wrote:The crap gets deeper every day. Hope the soccer mom's who push for this crap are happy, heck, back in tha' day, we had stories of a HUNTER in my reading book. And some of the stuff in classic literature would be downright obscene to these people.
It's not just "soccer moms", although they're an easy target. Pressure for this bullshit comes from both sides of the political spectrum. The real problem is the underlying mentality that children must be "protected" from facts and ideas which are deemed offensive, even if they happen to be true.

And, the 'soccer mom' genre is the biggest and most vocal group pushing for this over-protection. Although it does come from both sides, this group is one of the biggest pushers for it.

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2003-05-05 06:26pm

David wrote:
Nathan F wrote:The crap gets deeper every day. Hope the soccer mom's who push for this crap are happy, heck, back in tha' day, we had stories of a HUNTER in my reading book. And some of the stuff in classic literature would be downright obscene to these people.

Indeed, have you read any of Hemmingway's stories?

Or Walt Whitman, or Emily Dickenson, or Thomas Paine (saying that poor King George was a tyrant and pushing for a revolution), et cetera, et cetera.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-05-05 06:33pm

Nathan F wrote:
Darth Wong wrote:It's not just "soccer moms", although they're an easy target. Pressure for this bullshit comes from both sides of the political spectrum. The real problem is the underlying mentality that children must be "protected" from facts and ideas which are deemed offensive, even if they happen to be true.
And, the 'soccer mom' genre is the biggest and most vocal group pushing for this over-protection. Although it does come from both sides, this group is one of the biggest pushers for it.

There's also this obscure little group called "The Christian Right", which virtually controls the federal government and which is responsible for virtually gutting the entire sex education campaign in the country ...

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2003-05-05 06:58pm

I will quote what Stormbringer said, Mike:

Well, the "soccer moms" of both sides have been the driving force behind most of this kind of crap. Every time Junior feels bad about something at school (no matter what it is), they launch a crusade to fix the problem.

BTW, since when has sex ed been gutted? I got sex ed in 6th grade and then later and more detailed in 9th, and I am in the middle of the Bible Belt in a very conservative rural community.

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2003-05-05 07:00pm

Darth Wong wrote:
There's also this obscure little group called "The Christian Right", which virtually controls the federal government and which is responsible for virtually gutting the entire sex education campaign in the country ...

Correct me if I am wrong, but is that not a huge red herring that has nothign to do with the debate?

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-05-05 07:18pm

Nathan F wrote:BTW, since when has sex ed been gutted? I got sex ed in 6th grade and then later and more detailed in 9th, and I am in the middle of the Bible Belt in a very conservative rural community.

How old are you?

I remember having one session of sex ed in elementary school. That was it. There was zilch sex ed after that. And I live in California.

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-05-05 07:20pm

Heh, maybe they'll soon stop portraying people of different ethnicities or something cause they imply racism or something.

It is really annoying when you find people who just can't stop and THINK for a second.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2003-05-05 07:56pm

Shinova wrote:Heh, maybe they'll soon stop portraying people of different ethnicities or something cause they imply racism or something.

It is really annoying when you find people who just can't stop and THINK for a second.

You can say that again.

BTW, Isn't not showing people of other colors/ethnicities than your own inherently racist?

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-05-05 07:59pm

Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:You can say that again.

BTW, Isn't not showing people of other colors/ethnicities than your own inherently racist?

Actually, on a second thought, they might edit out all white people and leave all the minority groups in.

Or worse, they could leave out the nasty bits of history like the persecution against native Americans, My Lai, or even the Holocaust (hopefully the strong Jewish presence here in the US would stop the "soccer moms" from getting this piece of history banished from the textbooks")

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2003-05-05 08:11pm

Shinova wrote:
Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:You can say that again.

BTW, Isn't not showing people of other colors/ethnicities than your own inherently racist?
Actually, on a second thought, they might edit out all white people and leave all the minority groups in.

Or worse, they could leave out the nasty bits of history like the persecution against native Americans, My Lai, or even the Holocaust (hopefully the strong Jewish presence here in the US would stop the "soccer moms" from getting this piece of history banished from the textbooks")

Hmm Ultralibbies becoming racist Holocaust deniers!!?

How ironically pathetic of them.

DEATH to Political 'Correctness'!!

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-05-05 09:32pm

Darth Wong wrote:There's also this obscure little group called "The Christian Right", which virtually controls the federal government and which is responsible for virtually gutting the entire sex education campaign in the country ...

The Christian right hardly controls the government. Never have, hopefully never will.

And yes, sex ed has been they're beef but they haven't been the only on to gut education for their cause. Feminists, racial minorty groups (I don't think Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton are civil rights leaders at all), and any number of other minorities have done their part. Most have done their dead level best to expunge anything not favorable to their cause expunged.

But like it's or not "Soccer Moms" have been the force behind so much of it from both sides.