PC madness: 11 subjects banned from school tests in NYC

[maiforpeace]

America's Education Challenge - Birthdays? Dinosaurs? New York City education officials have an arguably overzealous blacklist of subjects that test-writers should avoid

March 27, 2012, at 9:58 AM

Any mention of birthdays, dinosaurs, and dancing is discouraged on standardized tests in New York City schools, as district officials strive to avoid offending anyone.

It is apparently quite common for school districts to request that standardized tests not include certain words that students might find offensive. But New York City's list of some 50 banned test topics is twice as long as national sensitivity lists, and stands out as "a bizarre case of political correctness run wild," says Yoav Gonen in the New York Post. NYC Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott disagrees, telling CBS that the city Department of Education is "not an outlier in being politically correct" — it's just dealing with a more diverse student body. But most experts — not to mention students, educators, and parents — seem to be on the PC-run-amok side. Here, a look at 11 of the blacklisted topics, and why they might have been deemed problematic:

1. Birthdays
Jehovah's Witnesses don't celebrate birthdays

2. Dinosaurs
Some students don't believe in evolution

3. Halloween
Suggests paganism

4. Religious holidays and festivals
Could offend students who don't celebrate one or more of the holidays

5. TV, celebrities, and video games
To "avoid giving offense or disadvantage any test takers by privileging prior knowledge" like pop culture, Robert Pondiscio at the Core Knowledge Foundation tells the New York Post.

6. Computers in the home
Not all students have computers at home

7. Homes with swimming pools
Words that suggest wealth could make lower-income students jealous

8. Homelessness, poverty, and loss of employment
Words that suggest hardship "could evoke unpleasant emotions in students"

9. Dancing (except ballet, which is alright)
See: Footloose

10. Terrorism
Too scary for some students

11. "Creatures from outer space"

Perhaps the school district read about the Washington, D.C., teacher fired this month for a math test featuring, among other stomach-turners, "bloodthirsty aliens" who "sucked the blood of 828 teachers and left them for dead," then "tied up the rest of the teachers and marched them into 3 UFOs."

[Clinton Huxley]

Funny. Don't want to privilege prior knowledge in a test....

[Audley Strange]

Oh wait... did I misread. Is it Freedom from speech and while I'm not a Yahweh's Aryan, doesn't that Freedom from speech also protect free exercise of Religion?

People who find words offensive have never received any form of education worth speaking about.

[klr]

#3 Is certainly going to offend paganists

Maybe there's a case for #6, but that's about it.

If you fish around, you can always find someone against any given thing. At this rate, there'll be nothing left to test at all.