This story is so bizarre that I had to check it twice to make sure it was not an early April Fool’s joke. The New York City Department of Education has barred the use of “Dinosaur” on tests to avoid upsetting people who believe creationism. Putting aside the fact that creationists do not deny that dinosaurs existed, the decision is to bar the use of a reference to an entire species because a fact might insult religious sensibilities.
Educations in New York decided that, with such things as Halloween and dancing, the reference to dinosaurs “could evoke unpleasant emotions in the students.” Also banned is the word “evolution.” It is basically designing a test for Sarah Palin to pass.
“Birthday” is also out because Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t celebrate birthdays.
The problem with this type of self-censorship is that runs against a core value of public education. I have been a long advocate of public educations and we have kept our kids in the public schools. Public schools are a core foundation for civil society — training future citizens in a shared and pluralistic environment. A child must learn not to be “distracted” by references to evolution because it is an accepted scientific fact in the world. It is part of the learning process and is itself a measurement of educational development. The same can be said for the realities of dancing and birthdays. Political correctness is being allowed to trump intellectual content.
Here are the other words on the list:
Here is the complete list of words that could be banned:
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)
Celebrities
Children dealing with serious issues
Cigarettes (and other smoking paraphernalia)
Computers in the home (acceptable in a school or library setting)
Crime
Death and disease
Divorce
Evolution
Expensive gifts, vacations, and prizes
Gambling involving money
Halloween
Homelessness
Homes with swimming pools
Hunting
Junk food
In-depth discussions of sports that require prior knowledge
Loss of employment
Nuclear weapons
Occult topics (i.e. fortune-telling)
Parapsychology
Politics
Pornography
Poverty
Rap Music
Religion
Religious holidays and festivals (including but not limited to Christmas, Yom Kippur, and Ramadan)
Rock-and-Roll music
Running away
Sex
Slavery
Terrorism
Television and video games (excessive use)
Traumatic material (including material that may be particularly upsetting such as animal shelters)
Vermin (rats and roaches)
Violence
War and bloodshed
Weapons (guns, knives, etc.)
Witchcraft, sorcery, etc.
Source: Daily Mail
I love looking through an article that will make men and women think.
Also, many thanks for allowing me to comment!
If this describes genuine then the students ought to be sporting their own tee shirts which has a prehistoric photo front and back, and their hoodies, to varsity next week.
Understand it with each other NYC mother and father. Position the dinosaurs again in institution wherever they fit in.
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Give the Home Schoolers an optional Fake World test (that stresses folklore and superstition) and the School Schoolers a Real World test (that stresses science and sociology).
Of course not, all we have to do is learn to live in the capitalist world; being able to work from dawn til dusk for companies that could care less about what we learned in school. They do not want any critical thinkers because any chance of someone ‘finding out’ their schemes and questioning them should be replaced by less educated people that cannot think for themselves because they were denied the right to learn about a variety of things in school because of the fear that it would ‘insult’ someone. Since when did we, Americans, worry about insulting someone when we live in a country with the right to freedom of speech and freedom to believe and think what we want to? Oh wait, those are just ideals anyway. Nope, just shut up and do what we tell you and you’ll be ready to work in no time.
Penis!!! It’s okay I can say it because it’s not porn or a bodily function. People are so dumb this is ridiculous.
When the Chinese name the first lunar colony Mao Zedong Base, we’ll deny they are up there because we will probably have adopted a constitutional amendment proclaiming the earth is flat.
Dinosaurs are not a species. They are an order. Actually, they are two orders: Saurischia and Ornithischia. Just sayin’
Better ban the word GLOBE or risk offending the flat earthers…
as a Christian, and believer in creationism, the word dinosaur doesn’t offend me a bit. The Bible describes dinosaurs in Job 40:15–19. It’s the timeframe that scientists “believe” they lived in that isn’t accurate. This link describes how God created dinosaurs on day 6. http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/nab/what-happened-to-the-dinosaurs
Yeah, right! I call BS on this one. “I had to read the story more than once” is not an indication of veracity. I would need to see some documentation from the Educational Board of New York City…You’re saying that they can’t use the word birthday or computer!? Ha! This is faux news.