Textbook Thought Police
By Diane Ravitch
July 1, 2003


Students across the state of New York recently took their Regents'
examinations, the tests that they must pass in order to get a high school
diploma. A year ago, the state education department was embarrassed when
Jeanne Heifetz, a vigilant parent in Brooklyn, announced her discovery that
state officials had expurgated literary selections on the English
examination. Words and sentences that might offend anyone had been quietly
deleted from passages by writers such as Elie Wiesel, Isaac Bashevis Singer,
and Franz Kafka.

New York's penchant for bowdlerizing literature, it turns out, was not
unique to the Empire State. The educational publishing industry follows very
specific guidelines to ensure that school children are not exposed to words
or topics that might be controversial, especially those that are related to
gender, race, religion, or sex. I compiled a list of over 500 words that are
banned by one or more publishers. Some are relatively obsolete, like
"authoress" or "geezer," but others are everyday words that one is likely to
encounter in the newspaper, like "landlord," "senior citizen," "dogma,"
"yacht" or "actress" (what would the late Katherine Hepburn have made of
that?).

Since my book appeared, I have received a large number of letters from
people in the educational publishing industry, offering fresh material about
the sanitizing that occurs on a regular basis. In Michigan, the state does
not allow mention of flying saucers or extraterrestrials on its test,
because those subjects might imply the forbidden topic of evolution. A text
illustrator wrote to say that she was not permitted to portray a birthday
party because Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe in celebrating birthdays.
Another illustrator told me that he was directed to airbrush the udder from
his drawing of a cow because that body part was "too sexual."

A review of my book in the Scotsman, an Edinburgh newspaper, said that a
well-known local writer for children sold a story to an American textbook
company, along with illustrations. The U.S. publisher, however, informed her
that she could not show a little girl sitting on her grandfather's lap, as
the drawing implied incest. So, the author changed the adult's face, so that
the little girl was sitting on her grandmother's lap instead. A contributor
to a major textbook series prepared a story comparing the great floods in
1889 in Johnstown, Pa., with those in 1993 in the Midwest, but was unable to
find an acceptable photograph. The publisher insisted that everyone in the
rowboats must be wearing a lifevest to demonstrate safety procedures.

A freelance writer sent me the "bias guidelines" for a major publisher of
texts and tests. The "bias guidelines" consist of advice to writers and
editors about words and topics that must be avoided, as well as
specifications for illustrations. Like other publishers, this one requires
adherence to gender and ethnic balance. All lessons, test questions, and
illustrations must reflect the following ratios: 50-50 male-female; 45%
Caucasian; 25% African American; 22% Hispanic American; 5% Asian American;
5% American Indian and others; and 3% "persons with disabilities." These
figures do not total 100%, nor do they represent actual U.S. Census numbers,
but the principle of representation is well understood by writers and
editors. American society, as represented in the textbooks, is perfectly
integrated by race, ethnicity, gender, age, and disability.

When it comes to illustrations in textbooks, certain images--women cooking,
men acting assertive, scenes of poverty, and old people walking with the aid
of a cane or a walker--are likewise considered unacceptable. The
specifications for photographs, I have learned, are exquisitely detailed.
Men and boys must not be larger than women and girls. Asians must not appear
as shorter than non-Asians. Women must wear bras, and men must not have
noticeable bulges below the waist. People must wear shoes and socks, never
showing bare feet or the soles of shoes, and their shoelaces must be solid
black, brown, or white. People must never gesture with their fingers, nor
should anyone be depicted eating with the left hand. Things to avoid:
holiday decorations and scenes in which a church or a bar appears in the
background.

There are so many rules, one wonders how they manage to keep track of them.
Even after its national humiliation a year ago, the New York State Education
Department still manages to make mistakes. On the last administration of the
Regents' English examination in January, the state asked high school seniors
to write about a poem by Matthew Arnold. However, the examination did not
mention the name of this famous poem ("Dover Beach"); it inexplicably
offered only one stanza of the four-stanza poem; and it changed or misquoted
an important line. Instead of Arnold's exclamation, "Ah, love, let us be
true to one another!" it stated, "Ah, friend, let us be true to one
another!"

As the example shows, bowdlerization is not only dishonest, it leads to
dumbing down of language and ideas. And of one thing I am convinced: The
widespread censorship of language and ideas in education caused by the
demands of advocacy groups will not end unless it is regularly exposed to
public review and ridicule. The next time someone in a publishing office or
a state education agency suggests deleting a literary passage from a test or
textbook because it contains the word "anchorman" or shows a witch flying
around on a broomstick, perhaps someone in the room will say, "Wait, if we
do that, people will laugh at us."


-- 
Oh, be still my heart.

I'm falling in love with the guy all over again, while reading Hillary's
book.
Forget about her being the smartest woman in the world. She's the luckiest
woman!

- Bonnie BLUE EYES, boniblueyz@aol.com, who insists everyone knows she is
White