Students since the late 50’s have been fed a diet of simplistic texts that are missing intellectual rigor and which appeal to children’s putative “feelings” about being “victimized” by white Western males. As a result minorities are sensitive to any racial insult. The student who could have developed into an American patriot has instead been trained to hate America.

An example is “The List” of banned words. The List is maintained by all textbook publishers as well as by “Progressive” newspaper editors removal  of all “offensive” words from the textbooks for the analytic thinking required in secondary school. Perhaps worse, author Susan Stotsky argues, they are being inculcated with potentially dangerous cultural misinformation. teacher guides pander to students’ self-esteem by soliciting uninformed feelings about social issues is bold and persuasive as well. But while her arguments about pedagogy are convincing, her indictment of the current practice of “using literature for nonliterary purposes” is muddied by her own repeated call for textbooks that “encourage positive civic sensibilities”; this argument opens a can o

America has the power to out-educate and out-innovate our children. The Left has the power to use the English language to punish and diminish patriotism and it’s been very successful in making American English a smaller and less powerful language. It does that by banning words.

Smaller language, smaller mind.  

“THE LANGUAGE POLICE” by presidential advisor, Ph.D. author and deep thinker Diane Ravitch who studied the harm of the politically correct intellectual dunce movement and knows “How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn”.

From the book description: “If you’re an actress or a coed just trying to do a man-size job, a yes-man who turns a deaf ear to some sob sister, an heiress aboard her yacht, or a bookworm enjoying a boy’s night out, Diane Ravitch’s internationally acclaimed The Language Police has bad news for you: Erase those words from your vocabulary!

“Textbook publishers and state education agencies have sought to root out racist, sexist, and elitist language in classroom and library materials. But according to Diane Ravitch, a leading historian of education, what began with the best of intentions has veered toward bizarre extremes. At a time when we celebrate and encourage diversity, young readers are fed bowdlerized texts, devoid of the references that give these works their meaning and vitality. With forceful arguments and sensible solutions for rescuing American education from the pressure groups that have made classrooms bland and uninspiring, The Language Police offers a powerful corrective to a cultural scandal.

“There is no shortage of colorful examples: a scientific passage about owls was rejected from a standardized test because the birds are taboo for Navajos; one set of stereotype guidelines urges writers to avoid depicting “children as healthy bundles of energy”; editors of a science textbook rejected a sentence about fossil fuels being the primary cause of global warming because “[w]e’d never be adopted in Texas.” Readers will likely disagree about whether, on balance, anti-bias guidelines do more harm than good, but Ravitch’s detailed, concise, impassioned argument raises crucial questions for parents and educators. Appendixes include “A Glossary of Banned Words, Usages, Stereotypes, and Topics” as well as a recommended reading list for students.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Locally The Bucks County Courier Times and the completely misnamed Intelligencer are guilty of chipping away at our language.  .    

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