Here's what kids won't see in texts

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Here's what kids won't see in texts

March 3, 2003

BY MIKE DANAHEY

If you think of the thought police as insane, you're dead wrong.

They have "an emotional disorder or psychiatric illness," according to some politically correct types skewered in Diane Ravitch's new book, The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn (Alfred A. Knopf, $24) due out in April.

The religious right has been successful in getting mentions of "witchcraft" banished. Left-wingers object to Mt. Rushmore because some Lakota find the national landmark offensive.

What might offend

According to Diane Ravitch, the following are some of the words, expressions and images avoided by publishers of textbooks and tests:

Words and expressions

* Adam and Eve (use "Eve and Adam," to show that men do not take priority)

* Bookworm (use "intellectual")

* Old wives' tale (sexist; use "folk wisdom")

* One-man band (sexist; use "one-person performance")

* Snowman (sexist; use "snow person")

* Baseman (sexist; use "infielder")

Images

* Women as more nurturing than men

* Men as problem solvers

* People of color as politically liberal

* American Indians performing a rain dance

* Hispanics as migrant workers

Enough is enough, the author says.

Textbooks and standardized tests have become a "phony cotton candy world," said Ravitch, a conservative. "They are boring, dumbed down, uninteresting and most of all, not true."

Ravitch includes examples from guidelines issued by major educational publishers and state agencies: "Adam and Eve" should be replaced with "Eve and Adam," "to demonstrate that males do not take priority over females." "Jungle" is now "rain forest."

An abridged version of banned words and stereotypes appears in the March issue of Atlantic Monthly.

Ravitch came to the topic after President Bill Clinton appointed her to the National Assessment Governing Board. The group was charged with developing questions for national standardized tests for fourth-graders. Of the questions reviewed, more than a dozen drew objections from a "bias and sensitivity" panel.

"One was a story of a blind boy and his attempt to climb Mt. McKinley. They objected to calling a handicapped person 'courageous.' They also thought children who lived where it didn't snow would have a hard time with the material," Ravitch said. Her frustrations led to her research in what she calls "a huge scandal" in U.S. education.

Fueling the matter is that traditionally liberal California and traditionally conservative Texas each comprise about 10 percent of the primary and secondary textbook market, Ravitch says. These states pick the books for their districts. In Illinois each district chooses its own books.

Four major publishers control most of the textbook market. Since California and Texas account for so much of their business, these states affect what's available for schools elsewhere.

Pressure from special interest groups in these large states also affect what publishers put in their texts and on their tests.

While something controversial might help a best-selling novel move up the charts, controversy is avoided by the big text and test publishers, who self-censor so as not to risk losing contracts, Ravitch explains.

As for solutions, Ravitch suggests teachers be allowed to choose textbooks. "Nearly all private schools and many top suburban schools use real books, not textbooks," she says. "So my recommendation to abandon state text adoptions is not all that radical."