|
|
|
|
The Search and Seizure of Textbooks |
| Section: BOOK WORLD / REVIEWS |
| Author: Laurie Morrow and Edward Morrow |
| Publication:
The World & I Online |
| Issue Date: 9/1/2003 |
| Size: 3,377 Words, 22,355 Characters |
|
THE LANGUAGE POLICE
How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn
Diane Ravitch
Publisher:New York: Knopf, 2003
272 pp., $24.00
Bookworm. Cover girl. Snowman! These words strike terror in the hearts of politically correct textbook publishers, who replace such damaging diction with bland, "gender-neutral" terms such as intellectual, model, and snowperson. Also banned are yachts (elitist), Mount Rushmore (offensive to Lakota Indians), and mountains (disconcerting to flatlanders).
In The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn, Diane Ravitch offers a chilling picture of the Newspeak demanded by textbook publishers, test writers, and state and federal bias and sensitivity committees. These eliminate every word, phrase, or idea that challenges their vision of an ideal world, in which girls are unconcerned about their physical appearance, boys are passive and nurturing, and no one celebrates Christmas. Ravitch, a historian of education, served during the first Bush administration as assistant secretary in charge of research in the U.S. Department of Education. She is currently Research Professor of Education at New York University and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
Today's language police--the members of bias and sensitivity committees who serve as censors of educational materials such as textbooks and standardized texts--have their origin in the 1960s. However, back in those more innocent times, when feminists quaintly burned their bras and scolded any man who dared "condescend" to them by opening a door for them, the then new, politically correct adjustments to our language seemed silly and comical. When a cigar-chomping comic in a plaid suit joked about manhole covers becoming "personhole" covers and history becoming "herstory," most people politely laughed after the punchline-popping rim shot. How absurd the politically correct word games seemed. Surely this fad would fade away, just as bell-bottoms and granny glasses disappeared into thrift shops and attics.
It didn't. Humor didn't disarm the language police, who, lacking a sense of humor, are incapable of recognizing why they are ridiculous. Herstory, for ex...
Read Full Article
...distort truth.
The language police seek to eliminate anything that might cause students discomfort or distress. The world is, however, a difficult and trying place, full of ideas that must be resisted and fought. What students need to learn are courage and perseverance in the face of difficulty, so that they can confront what should be resisted--including censorship by the language police.
(2,272 of 22,355 characters)
|
|
|
Publication Details
(The World & I Online) |
|
The World & I Online is a
comprehensive academic resource that encompasses a broad range of
articles by scholars and experts in the areas of Global Studies,
Liberal Arts, Fine & Applied Arts, General Science, and Spanish.
Originally published monthly in print as The World & I, our site
includes the complete contents since 1986 and continues to publish
a new issue online each month. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
