The Elderly Man and the Sea? Test Sanitizes Literary Texts

The New York Times ^ | 6/1/02 (for editions of 6/2/02) | N. R. Kleinfield

[freebilly]

Bowlderization rears its ugly head....

[freebilly]

That's "bowdlerization".

[goldstategop]

All great literature offends someone. The PC types are on a holy jihad against world literature now.

[Paul Atreides]

Winston Smith would be at home in this country.

[Tuor]

"When I saw that," Ms. Heifetz said, "I really thought they had lost their minds."

They haven't lost their minds. They know what they are doing. That is the fact that people need to face. They are trying to achieve a certain sort of product: a certain mindset in the student. This is one of their means to accomplishing that goal.

They haven't lost their minds. They aren't stupid. They aren't confused. This is what they want.

Tuor

[freebilly]

Wonder if any high school in America now reads Huck Finn. Naturally, it can no longer be considered a classic piece of American literature because the "N" word is used, and Huck SMOKES!

[TomGuy]

No, those tests are made up using passages from that soon to be published, future best-seller: My Personal Thoughts and Recollections, by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

[Fish out of Water]

*Index Bump

[goldstategop]

PC has invaded literature and texts have been censored, bowdlerized, and excerpt to purge it of all offending ideas and images because the PC police genuinely believe they're doing a public service and they also think that people (especially minorities) don't want to be exposed to what are regarded as concepts and ideas that insult or degrade their dignity and self-image. If this is what the New York State Education Department is doing with its tests, I'd hate to imagine what the situation must be like in the rest of the country.

[Bubba_Leroy]

Shouldn't that be "The Elderly Person and the Sea?"

I'm just wating for all the government schools that expel kids for drawing pictures of guns to start burning history books that contain pictures of people with guns.

[PJ-Comix]

"The changes are made to satisfy the sensitivity guidelines the department uses, so no student will be "uncomfortable in a testing situation," she said.

And I bet some of you thought that Politically Correct Bedtime Stories was mere satire.

[MrNeutron1962]

We are truly doomed. The mohamidan barbarians are at the gates and we have to destroy our own culture to satisfy a whining group of malcontents. I'm weeping for my country.

[3catsanadog]

Why don't we just lobotomize everyone from now on? Then everyone will be emotionally dead towards everyone else, peace will fill the earth, and we can all sing and hold hands.

[Tuor]

I'm just wating for all the government schools that expel kids for drawing pictures of guns to start burning history books that contain pictures of people with guns.

They wont burn them, as that would provide a rallying point for their enemies. No, they'll just ease the offending books out quietly... like they're doing already.

Tuor

[nimdoc]

Thank my luck stars!

I can sleep better at night knowing that our youth will not be traumatized by reality.

Maybe someday the great American Melting Pot will finally boil down to a cesspool of mediocrity. Then we can all feel real good about ourselves.

[goldstategop]

Reminds me of Ray Bradbury's classic Farenheit 451. Instead of burning dangerous books, they're quietly penciling them out of the cirriculum.

[Tuor]

Why don't we just lobotomize everyone from now on?

Lobotomized people make poor workers. Workers must be smart enough to do their jobs well, but not so smart as to think beyond their station. Moreover, they need to be happy with their station so that they don't become unruly. Unruly people require the use of resources to be quelled that could be otherwise used.

Tuor

[Paul Atreides]

Remember when Winston Smith's colleague was sent to the Ministry of Love because he left the word "God" in a poem?

Newspeak was all about eliminating words that could incite unorthodoxy. That's what P.C. is all about. As in 1984, they are beginning with the children first.