2012-03-28 "No word – no problem: NYC educrats ban dinos, Halloween and aliens"
[http://rt.com/usa/news/school-test-list-ban-656/]
The political correctness dictatorship in the US has turned against dinosaurs and aliens. Dozens of other topics on city-issued tests have also been banned by New York teachers who seem to believe a problem disappears if a word is exterminated.
The list of “distracting topics” has provoked a debate over correctness going totally crazy.
The Department of Education has submitted a list of 50 forbidden words to companies competing for the chance to revamp New York's citywide standardized tests.
Those are given to students throughout the year to measure progress in English, math, science and social studies.
The list of banned words is astonishing. Dinosaurs were thrown out, for example, as they call to mind evolution, which might upset fundamentalists. Birthdays shouldn’t be mentioned because they aren’t celebrated by Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Halloween appeared on the “black list” as it suggests paganism.
“Dancing’’ is taboo, because some sects object. However the city took pity on ballet which is an exception. It somehow turned out apparently, ballet doesn’t hurt anyone.
“Creatures from outer space,” junk food and, mysteriously, “homes with swimming pools” are less lucky.
Terrorism was considered too scary. Poverty is on the forbidden list as well as words that suggest wealth because they could make kids jealous.
Divorces, as well as diseases are also set to be forbidden in order to not traumatize kids having relatives who split from spouses or are ill.
Officials say they are simply trying to avoid topics that "could evoke unpleasant emotions in the students."
But if kids could be “traumatized” by the fact that some people live in homes with swimming pools and computers (mentioning those is restricted, too), what will happen to them when they learn about wars, pandemics or Holocaust?
And if the fact slavery existed in US for centuries (slavery obviously proscribed) can hurt young and innocent creatures – what is the next step to save the kids’ mental health? Will those words be censored from TV, for example, which is totally focused on “prohibited” celebrities, luxury and violence?
If educrats proceed with this idea, they will have to ban libraries and Internet access.
But at the moment you can only guess what will fall the next victim of political correctness gone wild. Presumably the human brain with its ability to compare, analyze and make conclusions provokes a major menace.