New York City schools want to ban 'loaded words' from tests - "Divorce. Dinosaurs, Birthdays. Religi
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[QUOTE]New York (CNN) – Divorce. Dinosaurs, Birthdays. Religion. Halloween. Christmas. Television. These are a few of the 50-plus words and references the New York City Department of Education is hoping to ban from the city’s standardized tests.
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."
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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.
Young Earth creationists, or Biblical creationists as they prefer to be called, often point to dinosaurs in making their arguments. They say dinosaurs and humans roamed Earth together, citing legends of dragons and say the fossil record shows the earth is 6,000 years old, though few paleontologists and geologists share this theory.
At the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, the heart of the Young Earth Creationism movement, dinosaur models and exhibits fill the museum displays and gift shop.
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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.
Piers Morgan's "Only in America": 50 banned words
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."
The Department of Education said, "This is standard language that has been used by test publishers for many years and allows our students to complete practice exams without distraction."
Stanford University Professor Sam Wineburg is an expert in the field of education and director of the Stanford History Education Group.
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."[/QUOTE]
Source: [url]http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/28/new-york-city-schools-ban-loaded-words-from-tests/?hpt=hp_c1[/url]
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;35351731]Dinosaurs[/QUOTE]
Why.
[editline]March 29 2012[/editline]
Woops, I guess I didn't skim the article well enough. Sorry, and thanks, OvB for pointing it out for me.
[QUOTE=SurferSasquatch;35351748]Why.[/QUOTE]
[quote]
"Dinosaurs" evoking unpleasant emotions? The New York Post speculated that the "dinosaurs" could "call to mind evolution, which might upset fundamentalists.”[/quote]
I hate fundamentalists.
Jehovah's Witnesses don't celebrate birthdays? That's rather strange.
I'm assuming this is kneejerk and no real research was done on this. Oh no, paganism! Birthdays, the horror! PEPPERONI, MY ONE WEAKNESS!
Siding with Wineburg on this.
[QUOTE=SurferSasquatch;35351748]Why.[/QUOTE]
Did you read further than the title?
For fuck sake we have dinosaur bones. Even if you don't agree with evolution you can't argue whether or not fucking Dinosaurs existed.
triple auto-merge breaker.
What are they going to do about texts from books that might make reference to these things? Just use different texts? I don't think that loaded words should have any effect on whether a extract from a book makes it into a reading comprehension test.
Math I can understand, of course. "It is christmas day and John's parents are getting a divorce, calculate the amount of alimony that either side will get assuming the net value of their estate is $500,000.00" would be a strange question to get on a test, especially if your name is John, and your parents are getting a divorce.
[editline]30th March 2012[/editline]
[QUOTE=Disgruntled;35351770]Jehovah's Witnesses don't celebrate birthdays? That's rather strange.[/QUOTE]
[url]http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061102031138AAZswKs[/url]
I'm getting a Fahrenheit 451 vibe here (people don't like x? Burn it)
It doesn't really say why television was taken off...
[QUOTE=Hypershadsy;35351808]It doesn't really say why television was taken off...[/QUOTE]
Offensive to luddites.
[QUOTE=Hypershadsy;35351808]It doesn't really say why television was taken off...[/QUOTE]
It could offend the Amish :downs:
[QUOTE=OvB;35351777]For fuck sake we have dinosaur bones. Even if you don't agree with evolution you can't argue whether or not fucking Dinosaurs existed.
triple auto-merge breaker.[/QUOTE]
Those aren't bones! Those are just rocks that god shaped to look like bones! :v:
After banning all those words just so it doesn't upset certain religions, they go and ban the word religion too?
Who's benefiting from all this?
[QUOTE=Disgruntled;35351770]Jehovah's Witnesses don't celebrate birthdays? That's rather strange.[/QUOTE]
They celebrate nothing. Because of how it ties in with old Judaism (birthdays weren't celebrated in it).
[url]http://www.towerwatch.com/Witnesses/Beliefs/their_beliefs.htm[/url]
They don't salute flags or take any oaths of allegiance, they're not supposed to associate themselves with non-Witnesses, they don't believe in the Trinity, they don't believe in Hell (if you're a non-Witness and you die, you just cease to exist; you'll come back when the Resurrection of the Dead happens though), they believe Jesus was crucified to a stake (not a cross) and that only 144,000 people get into Heaven to be with God and Christ (the 144,000 complement was met in 1935, just so you know; so everyone now just spends eternity on earth as a ghost member of the "Great Crowd"), and they don't celebrate any holidays because most of them have Pagan roots of some sort.
[QUOTE=minilandstan;35351865]After banning all those words just so it doesn't upset certain religions, they go and ban the word religion too?
Who's benefiting from all this?[/QUOTE]
Gnostics, no doubt :v:
I'm all for removing the word "television". I'm so tired of being required to write essays about television degrading the minds of youth.
I see no problem with this. standardized tests should be as culturally unbiased as possible
fuck that dinosaurs are awesome
I have a better idea, quit trying to please everyone and just tell them to suck it up.
I can understand if it was a racist or derogatory word, but seriously, people get offended far to easily.
[QUOTE=Sanius;35351969]I see no problem with this. standardized tests should be as culturally unbiased as possible[/QUOTE]
what do dinosaurs have to do with culture
[QUOTE=Ogopogo;35351996]I have a better idea, quit trying to please everyone and just tell them to suck it up.[/QUOTE]
it has nothing to do with pleasing people
[QUOTE=Sanius;35351969]I see no problem with this. standardized tests should be as culturally unbiased as possible[/QUOTE]
Freedom of saying words that would most of the time offend nobody/ minorly
[QUOTE=Sharker;35351806]I'm getting a Fahrenheit 451 vibe here (people don't like x? Burn it)[/QUOTE]
It's not that at all. They're city-wide standardized tests, they're supposed to be "equal for everyone"
[QUOTE=OvB;35351777]For fuck sake we have dinosaur bones. Even if you don't agree with evolution you can't argue whether or not fucking Dinosaurs existed.
triple auto-merge breaker.[/QUOTE]
The devil put them in the ground, silly
They're left over bones from his gluttonous and sinful hot wing binges
duh
[QUOTE=Te Great Skeeve;35352014]Freedom of saying words that would most of the time offend nobody/ minorly[/QUOTE]
did you actually read the article? the list of banned words only applies to standardized test questions
[QUOTE]
"Dinosaurs" evoking unpleasant emotions? The New York Post speculated that the "dinosaurs" could "call to mind evolution, which might upset fundamentalists.”[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=OvB;35351766]I hate fundamentalists.[/QUOTE]
God obviously planted dinosaur bones to trick us and test our faith.
And I guess they better remove any questions about the solar system, because some functionalists might be offended by the earth not revolving around the sun.
[QUOTE=Snake7;35352052]
And I guess they better remove any questions about the solar system, because some functionalists might be offended by the earth not revolving around the sun.[/QUOTE]
why would there be a question regarding the solar system in math and english standardized tests?
did you read the article?
yes good idea lets continue to fucking bubble wrap everything until just having an opinion is considered offensive
people are way too sensitive in this day and age
[QUOTE=Rediscover;35352085]yes good idea lets continue to fucking bubble wrap everything until just having an opinion is considered offensive
people are way too sensitive in this day and age[/QUOTE]
read the article before you post
what is with you people
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