We've raised a nation of sissies. Everyone's a victim. No one can have their sensibilities tweaked in the least otherwise it's a national crisis. The nanny state has run amok and the latest place it's reared its ugly head is on New York City standardized tests.Fearing that some child's fragile ego may somehow be damaged if they hear the word, "Halloween" is forbidden to appear on the city's standardized tests. Why? Because it might upset some kid that thinks it supports paganism. Despite the fact that there's a whole global industry based on the holiday and they just might hear about it on the TV, let alone their friends and family getting into the spirit of the day, these unfortunate few will be reduced to quivering carcasses of jelly at merely having read the word.
But that's not all! Not only was Halloween banned, but so was "dinosaur" (some kids might not believe in evolution), "computer" (a kid might not have a computer at home and will feel bad seeing the word), "birthday" (because Jehovah's Witnesses don't celebrate them), and "slavery" (because it might make some people feel sad). Oh, and they can't mention terrorism. In New. York. City.
Moreover, they also can't allude to "rock 'n' roll," "dancing," or -- get this -- "pepperoni." WTF? No really, WTF?! The reason given was "persons of some religions or cultures may not indulge in" the food. If you want to ban something, ban freakin' tofu.
Yet as messed up as New York apparently is, they're incredibly not alone. Florida doesn't let kids see the words "hurricane" or "wildfire." California bans the word "weed."
Mind you, were' talking about a lot of historical facts here. It is so asinine as to be unbelievable. But it's what comes of an educational system that is so broken, so dysfunctional. I'm tongue-tied right now. I can't come up with enough pejoratives to call these idiots right now, I'm so flummoxed. And it's not just the Halloween part of it. This is just stupid, yet someone signed off on this somewhere. These are the people we are allowing to run our school systems.
This country is really doomed.
I couldn't agree with you more. Looks like the moral majority are too busy making up threats while they ignore the one sitting in front of them.
ReplyDeleteThat is just insane. Wow, some people have too much time on their hands....and very little brain power.
ReplyDeleteCheers!
I saw this too. And while it did get my dander up, I did some additional reading and I think I understand the real purpose.
ReplyDeleteThey are trying to create tests that don't leave anyone out. Not buy 'banning' words, but by being careful of how they are used (in word problems and stories and such). For example, you might have a math problem about how many pieces of candy a kid could get per hour while trick-or-treating at Halloween. If the kids parent's don't like Halloween and never let him go TOTing, then he may not understand the question.
I remember a while back (1960's) there was a flap over standardized tests where young kids were asked what type dishes go together. One of the correct answers was a cup and saucer. But if you were poor, you probably didn't even have saucers in your house, so poor kids did worse on the tests (the controversy focused on poor minority kids). I think that is really what they are trying to avoid.
Although I do think they are going overboard a bit.
Jehovah's Witnesses reject Birthdays all holidays,Thanksgiving even benign Mother's day.
ReplyDeleteThe Watchtower leaders want to be 'different' for the sake of being different.Jehovah's Witnesses are a dysfunctional group from the get-go .
Christmas-Jesus was not born on exactly Dec 25th,but he also did not have his *invisible* second coming in the month of October 1914,a falsehood that is the core doctrine of the Watchtower religion.
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*tell the truth don't be afraid*--Danny Haszard http://www.dannyhaszard.com