Get this: New York City wants to ban the words “dinosaurs” and “evolution” from standardized school tests because the words are considered “controversial.” According to CNN, these are merely a few of fifty words that are to be deep-sixed from the tests because they’re considered “loaded” or because they may offend child and adult sensibilities:
The banned word list was made public – and attracted considerable criticism – when the city’s education department recently released this year’s “request for proposal” The request for proposal is sent to test publishers around the country trying to get the job of revamping math and English tests for the City of New York.
The Department of Education’s says that avoiding sensitive words on tests is nothing new, and that New York City is not the only locale to do so. California avoids the use of the word “weed” on tests and Florida avoids the phrases that use “Hurricane” or “Wildfires,” according to a statement by the New York City Department of Education.
In its request for proposal, the NYC Department of Education explained it wanted to avoid certain words if the “the topic is controversial among the adult population and might not be acceptable in a state-mandated testing situation; the topic has been overused in standardized tests or textbooks and is thus overly familiar and/or boring to students; the topic appears biased against (or toward) some group of people.”
Here, from SIlive.com (a site from Staten Island) is a complete list of the 50 banned words. “Dinosaurs” doesn’t appear here, but does on other lists, and note the E-WORD (my emphasis):
- Abuse (physical, sexual, emotional, or psychological)
- Alcohol (beer and liquor), tobacco, or drugs
- Birthday celebrations (and birthdays)
- Bodily functions
- Cancer (and other diseases)
- Catastrophes/disasters (tsunamis and hurricanes)
- Children dealing with serious issues
- Cigarettes (and other smoking paraphernalia)
- Computers in the home (acceptable in a school or library setting)
- Death and disease
- Expensive gifts, vacations, and prizes
- Gambling involving money
- Homes with swimming pools
- Junk food
- In-depth discussions of sports that require prior knowledge
- Loss of employment
- Nuclear weapons
- Occult topics (i.e. fortune-telling)
- Rap Music
- Religious holidays and festivals (including but not limited to Christmas, Yom Kippur, and Ramadan)
- Rock-and-Roll music
- Running away
- Television and video games (excessive use)
- Traumatic material (including material that may be particularly upsetting such as animal shelters)
- Vermin (rats and roaches)
- War and bloodshed
- Weapons (guns, knives, etc.)
- Witchcraft, sorcery, etc.
Matthew Mittenthal, a spokesman for the NYC Department of Education, said this is the fifth year they have created such a list. He said such topics “could evoke unpleasant emotions in the students.”
“Dinosaurs” evoking unpleasant emotions? The New York Post speculated that the “dinosaurs” could “call to mind evolution, which might upset fundamentalists.”
But what the tabloid failed to realize is that those “fundamentalists” who oppose evolution on religious grounds, believe wholeheartedly in dinosaurs.
Anyway, a lot of the list appears to pander to religious concerns. That’s okay insofar as favoring one faith over another, or faith over atheism, violates the Constitution. But this degree of extremism is simply stupid:
Apparently many of the words on New York’s list were avoided because of faith-based concerns.
For instance, the use of the word “birthday” or the phrase “birthday celebrations” may offend Jehovah’s Witnesses, who do not celebrate birthdays. A spokesperson for the Jehovah’s Witnesses declined to comment on the use of the word “birthday.”
The Department of Education would not go on the record to explain the specific reasons for each word, which has left many to speculate and draw their own conclusions.
Halloween may suggest paganism; divorce may conjure up uneasy feelings for children in the midst of a divorce within their family. One phrase that may surprise many, the term “Rock ‘n’ Roll” was on the “avoid” list.
And not good news for Italians: the Department of Education also advised avoiding references to types of food, such as pepperoni, products they said “persons of some religions or cultures may not indulge in.”
Good Lord, the degree to which children are protected these days! Kids can’t even ride their bikes around the neighborhood any more. (Do I sound like a curmudgeon? Very well, then, I sound like a curmudgeon. I am large; I contain many ages.) I agree with Stanford education professor Sam Weinburg, who, when told about the list, had this response:
When reached by phone said Wineburg, after a brief pause on the line, “the purpose of education is to create unpleasant experiences in us. … The Latin meaning if education is ‘to go out.’ Education is not about making us feel warm and fuzzy inside.”
Wineburg questioned the idea that the New York City Department of Education would want to “shield kids from these types of encounters.” He said the goal of education is to “prepare them,” adding “this is how we dumb down public schools.”