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Among the Intellectualoids
A Bland Society Is a Sensitive Society
The latest educationist mania? Erasing words from history.
Amid all the tumult — Republican challengers goring each other while smiling, furtive Iranians spinning centrifuges in hardened bunkers deep underground, and President Obama admonishing the Supreme Court — it is very easy to miss an event of monumental importance intended to enhance our nation’s sense of values and promote a vision of a sensitive society.
Perhaps unnoticed and lost in the ebb and flow of events, the New York City Department of Education recently indicated it would like to ban from school tests over fifty words that it finds objectionable. Among the offending words are “dinosaur,” “Halloween,” and many others deemed unfit to an enlightened body politic because of sensitivities and perceived bias.
In uncovering this potential mind control plot, and as reported by CNN, the New York Post has suggested that for the Department of Education, dinosaurs might invoke theories of evolution which could be offensive to fundamentalists. To elaborate, implied is that the mere mention of the gigantic stegosaurus, tyrannosaurus, pterodactyl, and others that ruled the terrestrial expanse for about 200 million years could somehow contradict earnestly held views of creation, as set forth in Genesis. Yet degrading dinosaurs is most unwise: those enormous, roaming creatures had a span of control of 320,000 times as long as the Ottoman Empire. To the contrary, we should celebrate this type of hegemony which far surpasses the Greek, Roman, British and other empires in duration. Further, it could be particularly exhilarating to discover that Man is descended from the even earlier trilobites, the three-lobed marine creatures frequently studied by first graders.
In another brash act of thought policing, “Halloween” is evidently deemed suggestive of paganism, those crude Celtic rituals that might be offensive to believers everywhere. Given its Scottish origin and association with All Saints’ Day, the natural extension would be to prohibit bagpipes and the wearing of kilts, embargo travel to the British Isles, revoke the UK’s NATO membership, and strike out by name those references to all martyrs of the Church who have ever lived and died.
The Department of Education may believe there is no limit to the amount of additional public good that can be achieved through robust censorship and the elimination of certain words and the institutions they represent.
First, we should get rid of any mention of the Renaissance and of the 18th century Age of Enlightenment. Science and the arts flourished during those times, and the idea evolved that Man is fundamentally a creature of Reason. Indeed, this could be highly offensive to emotional people who are not interested in being confused by facts.
Second, we should get rid of all editorial, op-ed and other columns, and indeed all print, social and other electronic media that express any opinions. By their very nature, opinions suggest some sort of value judgment and hierarchy of views and are therefore destined to offend someone, sometime, somewhere.
Third, the English language is rich in words with the power to offend both people and animals. There is no limit to the number of words that could be expunged from our common usage. A blue chip non-partisan Congressional committee could be mobilized to identify them. For example, “work” may alienate Europeans who protect lengthy vacation entitlements; “Russian roulette” may imply that the successor to the USSR is reckless; “Belgian waffle” may suggest that Belgians are indecisive; “Dutch treat” could mean that the Dutch are parsimonious and poor hosts; “Trojan Horse” might imply that the majestic animal known as equus is actually duplicitous; “Arctic Circle” could be offensive to students of Pythagoras who liked triangles; the Brazilian song, “The Girl from Ipanema” could be offensive to boys from the beach by that name who feel excluded from music; and “Chinese wall” may be taken to mean that the Chinese system is not fully transparent, damaging relations with the world’s second largest economy. As one droll observer told me, references to shoe-string potatoes are potentially offensive to those wearing tassel loafers.
The list of offensive words and phrases is indeed long. Yet the mere existence of a list is offensive to whatever is not on it. There is immense potential to build a bland but sensitive society — we should seize not only the day, but the word.
About the Author
Frank Schell is a business consultant and former international banking executive. He serves on the Dean’s International Council of the Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago, where he is a lecturer, and on the editorial board of the Chicago-based National Strategy Forum, which focuses on national security issues.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (66) | Leave a comment
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Appleby| 4.5.12 @ 7:56AM
Since a sizeable majority of public school "students" are only there because they'll be arrested if they don't show up -- and for the free food, and to beat up other kids -- why continue the fiction that they are there to be "educated"?
And why not eliminate all words longer than four letters, and all thoughts that take longer than 140 characters to express, and turn the schools into havens for drinking, fighting, texting and sex, which are the only things TheKids care about anyway.
Education should be reserved for people who are willing to fight for it. Let's drop the whole idea that education is something to be forced on the little savages, and reserve it for people who actually want to learn?
Hello, Brave New World.
Von Mises Jr.| 4.5.12 @ 12:22PM
Eliminating words over four letters and extended arguments is for the benefit of the public school teachers. The only argument they seem to have grasped is "someone promised me" with regards to their salaries, pensions, health care and tenure for life.
Not Special Ops Bill| 4.5.12 @ 3:26PM
Maybe it would be a good idea to have warehouses for the space fillers and real schools for the kids who actually think school can teach them something. Not every state has mandatory elementary education, you know, and they produce worthwhile people all the time.
Not Special Ops Bill| 4.5.12 @ 3:26PM
By "state," I mean "nation."
Aunt DeeDee| 4.6.12 @ 1:19PM
If the kid's in High Schools of today were made to work to earn their education they might think twice and study harder! Just like I believe that kid's in college should have to work to pay for their tuition or at least some part of their education! That way they would really appreciate school and what they are going there for! The problem is the Libs and our wonderful (sarcasm) Govt. are dumbing down our children in the Public school so once they are old enough they are easier to brainwash and control!
Aunt DeeDee| 4.6.12 @ 1:25PM
After all they don't even teach the kid's of today how to read or write! You can see this just by reading your FB wall if you have children or young adults as friend's or even family! It disgusts me that they can spell cuss words correctly but, anything longer then 4 letters they can't read or write at all!
Silverdrake | 4.21.12 @ 3:11AM
An interesting point: both Aristotle (proponent of "natural master" and "natural slave") and Frederick Douglass (former slave, abolitionist, speaker and author) stated that the only way to keep a man a slave was to keep him illiterate, dependent on someone else (educated, elite, master, etc.) for his information and opinions.
Gee, now *why* would the government-run schools not be teaching students to read. . . ?
numbatdog| 4.5.12 @ 8:15AM
This has happened before. We now call it the "dark ages", a time when people ignored anything new or different and simply obeyed the strict dogma of the day.
Can anyone doubt the leftists are pushing us into another dark ages? Where non PC speech is actually a crime? It is now so ridiculous I saw a left leaning panel on CNN actually spelling out a non PC word rather than daring to say it out loud.
Spelling it! Like you do when you want to keep something from your kids.
I am openly conservative but I read and listen to a wide range of views every day. How else do you develop a full understanding of any situation?
My liberal friend reads only leftist media which he then parrots and will not even consider another view. He considers himself enlightened but would rejoice if talk radio was banned.
I am at a loss to explain it.
idalily| 4.5.12 @ 12:23PM
Progressivism is a cult. Its adherents are indoctrinated, ostracized from other views, and bullied into becoming bullies themselves, forcing conversion on the rest of us. They are the collective, they are the Borg.
Resistance is NOT futile.
Jim| 4.5.12 @ 8:40AM
We should eliminate people being offended. Grow some skin, people! It's easy to be offended, hard to be a real man.
Butch| 4.5.12 @ 5:43PM
Let's get "offended" out of the language, too, along with "inappropriate." Those two words are PC dead giveaways.
Aunt DeeDee| 4.6.12 @ 1:28PM
Another word to get rid of is Politically Correct!
Aunt DeeDee| 4.6.12 @ 2:13PM
Oh, sorry I didn't get the PC reference! I don't get enough sleep as I work 24/7 taking care of a lady that is on Hospice and get no time off so I have CRS alot! LOL!
Adrian| 4.5.12 @ 9:47AM
It gets worse."The Girl from Ipanema" spunds a bit like "enema", with associationds at which I tremble to think.
The Dark Ages, by the way, were a period of scietific, engineering and argicultural creativity and advancement, after the stagnation of the late Roman Empire.
Alice Moore| 4.5.12 @ 11:11AM
Thank you, Adrian. It's sad to see that even readers of TAS buy into the liberal propaganda of pre Renaissance Europe.
There were many advances during the Renaissance; yes. This was also the era of the Borgias and many families like them all over Europe. They had absolute rule. This may be why the Ruling Class Elites like this era.
Many cite the disease, famines, wars, and overall filth of the Dark Ages. The renaissance too had these banes. Would people in the modern era do any better in the same circumstances?
Alice Moore| 4.5.12 @ 11:19AM
Do not forget the Dark Ages had truly great rulers such as Charlemagne and Alfred the Great. The former halted the Muslim advance in Europe.
Sugartown Super| 4.5.12 @ 2:37PM
Well, not to be picayune, but halting the Muslim advance into Europe would be better credited to Charles Martel than to Charlemagne. Martel stopped the advance at Tours in 732. Charlemagne was holding the line at the Pyrenees 60 years later - Roland at Roncevalles for example.
Not Special Ops Bill| 4.5.12 @ 3:28PM
Don't forget Jan Sobieski! He defeated the Muslims in what, 1463, was it, at the Battle of Vienna?
Not Special Ops Bill| 4.5.12 @ 3:31PM
1683, my mistake.
Skippy| 4.6.12 @ 1:35PM
King Sobieski is an ancestor of my spouse.
In Poland then, they elected kings.
Methinks O'Bama believes we elected one here as well.
Not Special Ops Bill| 4.5.12 @ 3:29PM
Charlemagne was a descendant of Charles Martel.
Not Special Ops Bill| 4.5.12 @ 3:27PM
We used to refer to it as "The Girl With Impetigo."
Robert Nowall | 4.5.12 @ 10:02AM
I would've thought "Trojan Horse" would've said something negative about the Trojans, not horses...I suppose after, what is it, three thousand years, not being aware of Greeks bearing gifts has passed from memory...
Maddox| 4.5.12 @ 10:30AM
The people who say you cannot legislate morality want to legislate thought through banning words. That is true irony.
Scott| 4.5.12 @ 11:11AM
Belgian Waffle cracked me up. To get rid of idiotic educators who come up with this stuff, there is a solution. First, don't make school madatory past middle school, that way the number of educators can be reduced. However, those who don't go to and pass high school can never vote, unless they serve in the military or some credible federal service. Second, the remaining educators' retention must be based on a rigorous testing and merit system. Those surviving then wouldn't be so freakin' stupid as to come up with this tripe!
TrueBlue | 4.5.12 @ 12:45PM
The military requires a high school diploma or GED these days. Waiverable of course, but that would require a passing score on the ASVAB, most of the topics of which aren't covered until high school these days.
Not that I mind the idea of a few years of military service being mandatory to vote, but just pointing out the requirements.
ncatty| 4.5.12 @ 11:15AM
My list for exclusion: self-esteem, inclusive, diversity, empathy, and most of all "community."
Maddox| 4.5.12 @ 10:14PM
Add progressives and liberals, they are communists and we should stop camouflaging that.
Aunt DeeDee| 4.6.12 @ 2:35PM
So very true Maddox and that is exactly what O-Puke-O will become if he gets a second term and which I believe he will due to votes being rigged AGAIN! Hillary Clinton and some very rich libs have paid a foreign company to count the votes so you can see where that will lead to!
mike daniels| 4.5.12 @ 11:56AM
I have taught at the high school, college and graduate levels. Good teaching comes down to having an enthusiastic, demanding teacher who is actually well versed in the subject matter. It is not computers, movies, power points, and politically correct and ineffective administrators that spend tax dollars on meetings, meetings, edicts, forms and surveys. Every time I hear some lame brianed politician (an oxymoron , I'm sorry) call for more money for education and the children I want to vomit. You can throw all the money you want at the schools but it still comes down to the person running the class.
Teaching is fun and exciting but.... no normal business person would put up with the overbearing interference of school administrators and a legal system that does not allow a teacher to enforce discipline in a class room.
TrueBlue | 4.5.12 @ 12:47PM
Well, the person running the class, and the willingness of the student to learn, plus a decent amount of attention paid by the parents to make sure the kid is doing their schoolwork and studying.
Vern Crisler| 4.5.12 @ 12:01PM
Just to clarify, "fundamentalists" don't deny the existence of dinosaurs. They refuse to except the timeline provided by Darwinists since it contradicts the biblical timeline, but there is nothing in the "fundamentalist" viewpoint that requires them to be offended with the use of the word "dinosaur."
They might be offended by the baseless idea of evolution, but that's another matter.
dsayne| 4.5.12 @ 2:12PM
Everyone here seem to have missed the point that the NY City School System most likely suggested banning the words in an attemp to stir up controversy that can then be directed at and blamed on "ignorant fundamentalist conservatives". They in no way actually intend to ban any of these words, least of all "dinosaur"! Vern is correct in his broad statement of "fundamentalist" belief. It is, in fact, the imaginary and untestable "millions and billions of years" that creationists generally reject, not the existence of dinosaurs. He hit the nail on the head; however, he misspelled "accept".
Vern Crisler| 4.5.12 @ 4:15PM
typo, not mispelling; no spell-checker on this site when you're typing fast.
Schrodinger| 4.26.12 @ 1:34PM
Carbon dating is not "imaginary" nor "untestable".
cicero| 4.5.12 @ 12:10PM
Another example of why the public education system should be scrapped all together, and replaced with private charter schools funded by vouchers which can be spent by the parents. Once choice is reintroduced into the system, this nonsense will stop. Unfortunately, the public school system, from pre-school through graduate school, have so dumbed down our citizenry, that one wonders whether it is already too late.
TrueBlue | 4.5.12 @ 12:48PM
Unfortunately even private schools have to meet certain requirements from the Dept of Education in order to remain accreditted, so they would be affected by this decision as well.
Tired Taxpayer PRM| 4.5.12 @ 2:02PM
Close the schools, fire all of the workers and get the government out of the school business entirely. Who, besides communists and their fellow travelers, thought government run schools are a good idea, anyway?
No vouchers, because with government money comes government control. We should have only private schools. If the parents don’t care enough to afford to send their kids to a private school or take advantage of any private charity-run school then they are life’s’ losers. It would still be better than our current government run system where NO ONE gets an education and all are life’s losers.
At a private school if a student tries to bully, sell drugs or just disrupt the classroom then the student would be removed from the school and their parents will have to pay more to send them to a school that charges more for “problem” students or they can stay home and torment the parents. If the student is not removed from the school then the other parents will move their kids to a different school and the problem will still be solved.
If the “poor” lose, too bad, it sure beats everyone losing. I have trouble believing, though, that charities would not step into the gaps and provide free educations to those who cannot afford it.
Silverdrake | 4.21.12 @ 2:47AM
Mandatory Public Schooling: Is it a tool for Mandatory Public Schooling: Is it a tool for Education and Enlightenment or the Creation of a "Standardized Citizenry"?
http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=24522
"In our dream...people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hands. The present educational conventions [intellectual and character education] fade from our minds, and unhampered by tradition we work our own good will upon a grateful and responsive folk. We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning or men of science. We have not to raise up from among them authors, educators, poets or men of letters. We shall not search for embryo great artists, painters, musicians, nor lawyers, doctors, preachers, politicians, statesmen, of whom we have ample supply. The task we set before ourselves is very simple...we will organize children...and teach them to do in a perfect way the things their fathers and mothers are doing in an imperfect way." - John D. Rockefeller’s General Education Board, Occasional Letter Number One (1906)
"[Administration] covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting; such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to be nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which government is the shepherd." - Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835)
"Every teacher should realize he is a social servant set apart for the maintenance of the proper social order and the securing of the right social growth. In this way the teacher is always the prophet of the true God and the usherer in of the true kingdom of heaven." - John Dewey's Pedagogic Creed, 1897
"That erroneous assumption is to the effort that the aim of public education is to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence....Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States, whatever the pretensions of politicians, pedagogues, and other such mountebanks, and that is its am everywhere else." - H.L Mencken, The American Mercury, April 1924
"We want one class to have a liberal education. We want another class, a very much larger class of necessity, to forgo the privilege of a liberal education and fit themselves to perform specific difficult manual tasks." - Woodrow Wilson, 1909
John Dewey (wikipedia entry)
"Dewey goes on to acknowledge that education and schooling are instrumental in creating social change and reform. He notes that “education is a regulation of the process of coming to share in the social consciousness; and that the adjustment of individual activity on the basis of this social consciousness is the only sure method of social reconstruction.”
"John Dewey and the Chaos of Contemporary Public Education" by Gennady Stolyarov II
http://www.conspiracyarchive.com/Blog/?p=565
"The dismal and declining student performance at America’s public schools is no accident. Nor is the pervasive bullying by peers and repression by teachers that the brightest, best-mannered, and most accomplished students encounter in public schools today. Both are the direct results of the educational philosophy promulgated by John Dewey (1859-1952), the originator of “Progressive” education and a self-proclaimed advocate of collectivism and opponent of teaching objective knowledge in the schools. Dewey’s ideas have largely shaped the ways in which today’s American public education system works—or, more accurately, does not work."
Schrodinger| 4.26.12 @ 1:55PM
Machiavelli much?
Petronius| 4.5.12 @ 12:46PM
We are the Soviet Union when it comes to public discourse. You can have Freedom of Speech to say anything you want: Once.
Not Special Ops Bill| 4.5.12 @ 3:24PM
Just don't offend anybody.
Die Limbeckity, Die!| 4.26.12 @ 2:46PM
The fact that you are posting your views on this site proves your statement is totally false. Cheers :)
fmm| 4.5.12 @ 1:01PM
This whole subject serves to highlight how incredulous the progressive mind set really is. They want to ban words which highlight potential differences so that the sensitive will not have a shock, but they base all their societal edicts on diversity. The definition of diversity is difference. Completely laughable.
Silverdrake | 4.21.12 @ 2:50AM
They want diversity of labels, to create conflict, not diversity of actual thought and opinion. The targeted labels are to wear sack cloth and ashes for their "crimes" against the non-targeted labels, while fully agreeing with the elites' accusations of their guilt.
Petronius| 4.5.12 @ 2:59PM
In the old days these weenies just got their pathetic asses beat. Then they took over the legal establishment , the media, and the schools. Today the people who get abused, sued, and persecuted are those once referred to as normal.
Butch| 4.5.12 @ 5:54PM
You got it. When I was a kid in the South, there was a way of doing things that prevented people from doing this. It didn't have a name, but as I reflect back it could be called the "justifiable asswhipping."
No cop would arrest, no prosecutor would prosecute, no jury would convict, no lawyer would accept the case, no judge would entertain a lawsuit. Not if it was deserved. Things were a lot more harmonious.
The great Satan| 4.5.12 @ 6:07PM
Unless you happened to be blackitty, black.
Aunt DeeDee| 4.6.12 @ 3:04PM
If more kids today were spanked when they got into trouble, there wouldn't be so many problems as there are today with the youth! Like the Bible say's "Spare the Rod and Spoil the Child". If that isn't evident enough I don't know what is! But, I am not referring to spankings that leave horrible welps or bruises and I don't mean children should get slapped in the face or spanked with a board like they used to use in Middle and High Schools. To me that is abusive and discipline should be left up to the parent's! One of the main problems of today is that both parent's work and don't have time or won't make time to be there for their children in studying, correction or just spending quality time with them talking or even playing games with them. It has turned into a society where video games and the internet has turned into the babysitter and playcater to these children! When Mom's stayed at home back in the day we didn't get into much trouble because, she ALWAYS pretty much knew what we were up to!
Not Special Ops Bill| 4.5.12 @ 3:20PM
Observation and suggestion: this isn't new. Give a listen to the Stan Freberg comedy routine from the 1950s, "Elderly Man River."
Constantine Ivanov | 4.5.12 @ 4:47PM
Political correctness is not only absolutely moronic, being another one of Liberal mental dementia. But it is also contagious or, even more precisely - acts like a Borgia-style poison that kills just by touching: the entire society is being deteriorated.
Aunt DeeDee| 4.6.12 @ 2:52PM
And on purpose too! If you read Agenda 21 you will see that they (the govt., big corps, and the elite left) are "Dumbing Down" our society in the US so that they can be brainwashed to believe anything they say or do. Also, in Agenda 21 is the "Depopulation Agenda" which they will use by sterilization of young people, abortions and who know what else with what Fema is up to with all these thousands if not millions of coffins all over the US. They are up to something, not sure yet but it will be big and soon! All you have to do is Google Fema Mass graves Houston to see them on video and they are all over Youtube as well. You can also Google or Youtube Fema Death Camps and learn about them. The thing is Fema can take over the govt. at any time they see fit to do so and that is a very scary thought besides O-Puke-O getting a second term and turning this country into a Socialist or probably even more likey a Communist country and he will be our dictator. Agenda 21 is under the guise of being for the good of the environment. I would ask everyone to delve into it and start reading what horrble plans they have in store for us!!
Silverdrake | 4.21.12 @ 2:53AM
"Political correctness" is the heart and soul of every totalitarian movement in the history of humankind.
Dipesto| 4.5.12 @ 5:26PM
According to an old book I read once on political correctness in '80s colleges someone decided that the term Achilles Tendon was Offensive. Maybe naming a part of the human anatomy after a Male was the reason, or because Achilles was a nasty killing machine.
Dave Williams| 4.5.12 @ 5:42PM
I think it was Philip Roth who said he was giving up writing fiction because he couldn't match the outrageousness that reality was now providing on a daily basis. This is a prime example. Thank goodness most people will laugh it off and proceed with their daily lives.
HALLOWEEN!! DINOSAUR!!! Neener neener neener, you left-wing Nazis!!!
The great Satan| 4.5.12 @ 6:03PM
Still concentrating on the really important stuff, I see.
Silverdrake | 4.21.12 @ 2:59AM
Damn right, it's the important stuff!
George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946
Now, it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic causes: it is not due simply to the bad influence of this or that individual writer. But an effect can become a cause, reinforcing the original cause and producing the same effect in an intensified form, and so on indefinitely. A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. The point is that the process is reversible. Modern English, especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble. If one gets rid of these habits one can think more clearly, and to think clearly is a necessary first step toward political regeneration: so that the fight against bad English is not frivolous and is not the exclusive concern of professional writers.
Not Special Ops Bill| 4.6.12 @ 10:11AM
To paraphrase the character played by Tom Cruse in "Born On the Fourth of July" when he has his controntation with his mother about Vietnam, "Dinosaurs! Thunder lizards! Male ones! With great big penises!"
Aunt DeeDee| 4.6.12 @ 1:09PM
This is because of the dumbing down of our Educational System, to our children, from our wonderful Govt.! It's only going to get worse if parent's don't get really involved in what they are teaching their children in school!
Aunt DeeDee| 4.6.12 @ 1:34PM
So happy that my step-daughter received her education in England, where the standard is much, much higher then in America! She was doing calculous in grade school and is about to graduate from University this summer at the young age of 21 with a Masters in Zoology! Their Education is free at any college or University and there is a higher emphasis there on getting a "Good Education" then there is here in the States!
Schrodinger| 4.26.12 @ 1:24PM
Wow, a conservative touting free education at the university level! Don't you think a free college education for all is a bit "socialist"?? I guess it's different when it's to your benefit.
AVCurmudgeon| 4.8.12 @ 6:31PM
As a conservative Christian, I'll deal with the dinosaur issue myself, thank you very much (I saw a cartoon not long ago showing two dinosaurs on a rock with water all around, looking at the Ark sailing away; one says to the other "Oh, shit. Was that today?")
The kind of nonsense undertaken in NYC completely misses every point imaginable. You do not prepare children for the real world by encasing them in Bubble Wrap and pretending that unpleasant people and offensive ideas do not exist and that they will never encounter them. You prepare children for the real world by equipping them to know and hold onto their values and beliefs when they find them under attack. In other words, prepare them to stand tall not seek shelter.
Silverdrake | 4.21.12 @ 3:07AM
The point of public schools is not to create reasoning adults, but to cause children to remain eternally in childhood -- bored, frightened, credulous, and needy -- the better to be controlled as compliant and eager herd beasts by the corporate and political elites.
Page Nelson| 4.22.12 @ 12:05PM
Mr. Schell attributes this obviously silly proposal to the New York CITY Department of Education. Did any of the barking dogs who responded to his essay bother to fact check his story? Well, being right wing hand wringers with no patience for anything like facts...NO. In fact, this proposal was made by the New York STATE Department of Education. Is this an insignificant oversight? Only if reality is important to you, and it clearly is not of importance to this very upset bunch of pooches. I suspect that Schell made this glaring factual error intentionally just to test out his readership. So, was the test a success?
Page Nelson| 4.23.12 @ 10:43AM
WRONG!
I won't go into how I got my facts wrong. Call it bad misreading. Suffice it to say I offer my profound apologies to all the barking pooches.
A Recovering Dyslexic
Schrodinger| 4.26.12 @ 12:05PM
It's ironic that most of the comments are critical of liberals, the left, progressives, etc., when in fact the NYC Department of Education's decision to ban some words seems to be based on the fact that conservatives are the types who are offended by words such as dinosaur and Halloween, due to their irrational and intolerant religious views.