OgreMkV
Posts: 2916
Joined: Oct. 2009
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| Quote (midwifetoad @ Mar. 28 2012,09:17) | Proposed 50 words and concepts to be forbidden in NYC schools:
| Quote | 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. |
| Quote | | The word “dinosaur” made the hit list because dinosaurs suggest evolution which creationists might not like, WCBS 880?s Marla Diamond reported. “Halloween” is targeted because it suggests paganism; a “birthday” might not be happy to all because it isn’t celebrated by Jehovah’s Witnesses. |
[URL=http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/03/26/war-on-words-nyc-dept-of-education-wants-50-forbidden-words-removed-from-standardized-test
s/]http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012....d-tests[/URL]
Something to occupy our minds after the death of UD. |
Man, I just got finished with this at Phrangulya...
First, this list is in regards to the standardized test, NOT the curriculum or the text books or that kind of thing.
Two, for us assessment people, there are some ways around these kinds of lists. For example, note that 'common descent', 'natural selection', 'cladograms', etc are not on the list. So we can't use the "E" word. Speciation would probably work too.
Three, many of these concepts, regardless of the truth or not, are upsetting to students. This can badly skew the test results and something no one wants is a kid freaking out in the middle of a test. Yes, it's correct science. Yes, life is hard and kids need to be aware of it. But it's still a bad idea to talk about Little Johnny's grandmother dying of leukemia. In a state like New York, there's guaranteed to be at least a few kids whose beloved grandmother just died and we need to prevent an emotional reaction to the test.
Four, trust me, as a science specialist in the assessment industry, there is no way that creationism will get on the tests. Ain't gonna happen and I don't know anyone who would try it. I'm somewhat known as the 'evolution' expert in my company, so I get calls about "does this make sense" and "is this right" in regards to evolution-based questions.
In fact, (I just checked), New York standards have evolution as a major key idea with 12 sub-topics.
So, I think it really is more about avoiding emotionally charged issues in a testing environment rather than trying to eliminate evolution.
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