Been Awake Since The Second World War
No sleep.
I am reading The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn by Diane Ravitch. Of all the things I could have done when sleep would not come, picking up this book was probably right next to disco dancing in terms of how smart it was. (Of course, I should never dance - disco or otherwise - but that's beside the point.) I am riled. As my husband pointed out, I don't get riled very often.
Some of it has been as preachy as I expected it to be, yes. But according to McGraw-Hill Publications, as quoted in this book, whitecrow0 is not allowed to be represented in a textbook. She is a female who works in a library and that's stereotyping, Boys and Girls Girls and Boys Children. In fact, let's just pretend she doesn't exist. salleesuewho and I are not allowed to be in there either, since we stay at home and do laundry, cook dinner, etc. (Most of the time, anyway. ^_^) Women doing household chores? Gasp! Not allowed. Make them men and we'll consider them. shadesong gets a little better because she works outside the home and has a disability, but her sexual orientation can't be mentioned and her work looks a lot like a secretary and her disability is sadly not photogenic. If only she had a cane, we might be able to represent her. (Especially since we can't show the elderly using canes. They have to be jogging.) We all lose points for being white Caucasian, as well. Oh! And I've been divorced. We probably shouldn't mention that. Had sex before marriage, too. Whoa, Nelly! (Could be horse bias. Best to be careful.) And I've just committed an atrocious crime by leaving out all males and ethnic minorities groups other than my own.
Men of Irish descent aren't allowed to be portrayed as policemen law enforcement persons. I'd worry about Irish priests, too, but you can't talk about religion. African Americans can't be athletes or live in urban environments. Test questions can't refer to a mountain setting because that's biased against kids who live in the desert and vice versa. You can't reference mice (frightening) or owls (bad connotations for several ethnic/religious groups) and you certainly can't say what owls do to mice (gratuitous gore!).
I'm not even halfway through this book and I am fuming. I feel a backlash coming on. Hopefully by morning I will have recovered from a strong desire to hand my child copies of The Mythology of Sex and The Color Purple just because. (I wouldn't stop him from reading them, mind. But The Boy got all bent out of shape when George R. R. Martin said he got into trouble for describing "a penis entering a vagina." I do not know where he got this prudish streak, but if it's part of his teenage rebellion, I'm all for it.)
Deh. Some of this may be trumped up. I'm not a big conspiracy theorist and a nation-wide silent censorship of everything that my son touches in a classroom is a big concept for my poor little brain even for a liberated and intelligent adult like myself. And in the end, my only recourse is to be certain The Boy is as aware as I can make him of the dangers of this bizarre lovechild happy, balanced marriage of political correctness and religious far right. Without offending anybody, of course.
I am reading The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn by Diane Ravitch. Of all the things I could have done when sleep would not come, picking up this book was probably right next to disco dancing in terms of how smart it was. (Of course, I should never dance - disco or otherwise - but that's beside the point.) I am riled. As my husband pointed out, I don't get riled very often.
Some of it has been as preachy as I expected it to be, yes. But according to McGraw-Hill Publications, as quoted in this book, whitecrow0 is not allowed to be represented in a textbook. She is a female who works in a library and that's stereotyping, Boys and Girls Girls and Boys Children. In fact, let's just pretend she doesn't exist. salleesuewho and I are not allowed to be in there either, since we stay at home and do laundry, cook dinner, etc. (Most of the time, anyway. ^_^) Women doing household chores? Gasp! Not allowed. Make them men and we'll consider them. shadesong gets a little better because she works outside the home and has a disability, but her sexual orientation can't be mentioned and her work looks a lot like a secretary and her disability is sadly not photogenic. If only she had a cane, we might be able to represent her. (Especially since we can't show the elderly using canes. They have to be jogging.) We all lose points for being white Caucasian, as well. Oh! And I've been divorced. We probably shouldn't mention that. Had sex before marriage, too. Whoa, Nelly! (Could be horse bias. Best to be careful.) And I've just committed an atrocious crime by leaving out all males and ethnic minorities groups other than my own.
Men of Irish descent aren't allowed to be portrayed as policemen law enforcement persons. I'd worry about Irish priests, too, but you can't talk about religion. African Americans can't be athletes or live in urban environments. Test questions can't refer to a mountain setting because that's biased against kids who live in the desert and vice versa. You can't reference mice (frightening) or owls (bad connotations for several ethnic/religious groups) and you certainly can't say what owls do to mice (gratuitous gore!).
I'm not even halfway through this book and I am fuming. I feel a backlash coming on. Hopefully by morning I will have recovered from a strong desire to hand my child copies of The Mythology of Sex and The Color Purple just because. (I wouldn't stop him from reading them, mind. But The Boy got all bent out of shape when George R. R. Martin said he got into trouble for describing "a penis entering a vagina." I do not know where he got this prudish streak, but if it's part of his teenage rebellion, I'm all for it.)
Deh. Some of this may be trumped up. I'm not a big conspiracy theorist and a nation-wide silent censorship of everything that my son touches in a classroom is a big concept for my poor little brain even for a liberated and intelligent adult like myself. And in the end, my only recourse is to be certain The Boy is as aware as I can make him of the dangers of this bizarre lovechild happy, balanced marriage of political correctness and religious far right. Without offending anybody, of course.