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

[BluH2o]

The Elderly Man and the Sea?

How about "Geezerville resident and the sea?" or "Old codger and the sea?". ;o)

[Congressman Billybob]

What a terrific piece of work by a bright, dedicated, but ordinary American. The main thing I do with my time is to write. I would sue the socks off of anyone who claimed to be quoting me, but took the obscene liberty of changing my words because they thought someone "might be offended."

Dick Gregory entitled his autobiography, Nigger, Nigger, precisely to make a point. Would the Board of Regents change that to Negro, Negro? Or perhaps this, which comes trippingly off the tongue, African-American, African-American?

The New York Regents Exam writers have just demonstrated that they are as dumb as a box of rocks, and as useless as tits on a bull. And you can quote me.

Congressman Billybob

Click for latest, "Home of the Rocket Boys."

[ladylib]

I guess the Regents are becoming like the NAEP tests that th feds want to foist on school kids everywhere. Unfortunately, from what I've read, the NAEP measures ATTITUDES, not academic knowledge, so many, many students (private and home schooled) will have a difficult time passing them.

[aruanan]

The State Education Department, which prepares the exams, acknowledged modifying excerpts to satisfy elaborate "sensitivity review guidelines" that have been in use for decades, but are periodically revised. It said it did not want any student to feel ill at ease while taking the test.

It's time the State Education Department be revised.

[aruanan]

The State Education Department, which prepares the exams, acknowledged modifying excerpts to satisfy elaborate "sensitivity review guidelines" that have been in use for decades, but are periodically revised. It said it did not want any student to feel ill at ease while taking the test.

It's time the State Education Department be revised.

[livius]

What is it with Hillary? How in holy heck can New Yorkers fall for her??? I just don't understand it.

[Libertina]

Excellent post! Everyone FReeper & their friends/relatives should read
The Cloning of the American Mind Eradicating Morality Through Education
by B.K. Eakman, Huntington House Publishers
Find out the entire story of our education system and who the players are who are purposely trying to destroy the US culture through our youth. HOW did it happen in Russia, in China? and is happening here! Centuries of culture gone in 50.

[Libertina]

Another education outrage, Summer.

[forsnax5]

This is reminiscent of a song parody by Stan Freberg called "Elderly Man River." I believe that it was done in the summer of 1957.

The gist of the skit (it was aired on CBS radio) was that Mr. Freberg was continually interrupted as he tried to sing "Old Man River" by an individual who insisted that none of the lyrics could be permitted to offend anyone.

Rather prescient, it seems. It's a pity that Mr. Freberg is no longer engaged in lampooning such nonsense.

[monday]

"It's time the State Education Department be revised."

Eliminated, and the people who work there deported to some Euro country where this kind of PC nonsence is tolerated.

[concerned about politics]

ATTITUDES, not academic knowledge, so many, many students (private and home schooled) will have a difficult time passing them.

Exactly. The private schools and homeschoolers are into academics, something way beyond public school comprehension.

[Erasmus]

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.

The dream of every broadcast property owner.

+=<)B^)

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

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

Harrumph. Unacceptable.

The Age-Endowed Global Citizen and Gaia's Sacred Saline Crucible-of-Life.

That's more like it.

[TxBec]

ping

[Bubba_Leroy]

"The Age-Endowed Global Citizen and Gaia's Sacred Saline Crucible-of-Life."

Much better. But wasn't the "Age Endowed Global Citizen" a white guy who killed fish (I mean "Aquatic Citizens of Gaia's Sacred Saline Crucible-of-Life")? Shouldn't there be something in the title to reflect that he was a racists, sexist, homophobic, Euro-centric white guy?

[Orual]

Good. I hope the guilty "educational" vandals get their asses sued off.

A class action.

[Fred Hayek]

Newspeak arrives. Doubleungood.

[eFudd]

I find the alphabet particularly offensive. It is the tool with which all written offenses made. It is high time that the state educational services remove all letters in the alphabet from any written materials provided to children in public schools.

[aculeus]

In Louisiana, at a clambake on college grounds, a senior professor had overheard a sophomore warning some freshmen about the chiggers -- insects that burrow under your skin; a local hazard. Without stopping to think, the professor had blurted out a foolish witticism: "We're not allowed to call them chiggers anymore," he said, guffawing, "We have to call them chegroes."

... The matter was brought before the Disciplinary Committee, and we agreed unanimously that the joke was a speech act showing complicit contempt for minority students.

The Horned Man by James Lasdun