I have frequently noted that Christianists prefer that their children be raised in utter ignorance rather than allow public education to disseminate anything that offends their Neanderthal religious beliefs. Who would have thought that Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary would be removed from school libraries so as to not offend a handful of lunatic religious extremists? I guess the Encyclopedia Britannica will be the next "old standard" reference book series to be discarded simply because it is inappropriate in the minds of Christianists. And God knows how many other books would need to be removed and apparently burned based on the offended sensibilities of a few nutcase parents. In my view, if parents want their little darlings to remain ignorant and sheltered from anything that might impinge upon the parents' extreme religious views, then they need to put their children in private, Christianist schools. The larger population should not be made ignorant to satisfy such small minded people. Here are some highlights from the Riverside, California Press Enterprise: *
The Menifee Union School District is forming a committee to review whether dictionaries containing the definitions for sexual terms should be permanently banned from the district's classrooms, a district official said Friday.
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The 9,000-student K-8 district this week pulled all copies of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary after an Oak Meadows Elementary School parent complained about a child stumbling across definitions for "oral sex." The decision was made without consultation with the district's school board and has raised concerns among First Amendment experts and some parents.
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The collegiate dictionaries were purchased several years ago to allow advanced readers in the fourth and fifth grades to look up words that they didn't know, Cadmus said. Other less extensive and more elementary dictionaries remain available to students, she said.
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The committee will decide what to do with the Merriam-Webster dictionaries if the ban becomes permanent. The district paid $24 for each dictionary, which are currently stored away from students. They might be sold or exchanged for other dictionaries, Cadmus said.
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Free-speech and anti-censorship experts called the ban an overreaction. "If a public school were to remove every book because it contains one word deemed objectionable to some parent, then there would be no books at all in our public libraries," said Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition, of which The Press-Enterprise is a member. "I think common sense seems to be lacking in this school."
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Whether banning a dictionary would actually violate free-speech laws is a complicated legal question, Scheer said. But the decision to remove the reference books "certainly offends free-speech principles and values that all public schools should hold dear," he said.
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Joan Bertin, executive director of the New York-based National Coalition Against Censorship, whose members include the American Library Association, said dictionary bans have happened in the past, although none has been reported since the mid-1990s. . . . The Menifee ban is particularly troubling, because it is based on one parent's complaint, Bertin said.
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Part of my past activism involved advocating for advanced materials for academically gifted students (my 3 children were all identified as academically gifted in first grade) who far exceed the norm in their abilities. The problem is particularly acute in grades K-8 where often there is little or no instructional differentiation. The result is frequently one of dumbing the curriculum to the lowest common denominator - something that disservice above average students who go unchallenged and who frequently become behavioral problems due to their utter boredom.
The Menifee Union School District is forming a committee to review whether dictionaries containing the definitions for sexual terms should be permanently banned from the district's classrooms, a district official said Friday.
*
The 9,000-student K-8 district this week pulled all copies of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary after an Oak Meadows Elementary School parent complained about a child stumbling across definitions for "oral sex." The decision was made without consultation with the district's school board and has raised concerns among First Amendment experts and some parents.
*
The collegiate dictionaries were purchased several years ago to allow advanced readers in the fourth and fifth grades to look up words that they didn't know, Cadmus said. Other less extensive and more elementary dictionaries remain available to students, she said.
*
The committee will decide what to do with the Merriam-Webster dictionaries if the ban becomes permanent. The district paid $24 for each dictionary, which are currently stored away from students. They might be sold or exchanged for other dictionaries, Cadmus said.
*
Free-speech and anti-censorship experts called the ban an overreaction. "If a public school were to remove every book because it contains one word deemed objectionable to some parent, then there would be no books at all in our public libraries," said Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition, of which The Press-Enterprise is a member. "I think common sense seems to be lacking in this school."
*
Whether banning a dictionary would actually violate free-speech laws is a complicated legal question, Scheer said. But the decision to remove the reference books "certainly offends free-speech principles and values that all public schools should hold dear," he said.
*
Joan Bertin, executive director of the New York-based National Coalition Against Censorship, whose members include the American Library Association, said dictionary bans have happened in the past, although none has been reported since the mid-1990s. . . . The Menifee ban is particularly troubling, because it is based on one parent's complaint, Bertin said.
*
Part of my past activism involved advocating for advanced materials for academically gifted students (my 3 children were all identified as academically gifted in first grade) who far exceed the norm in their abilities. The problem is particularly acute in grades K-8 where often there is little or no instructional differentiation. The result is frequently one of dumbing the curriculum to the lowest common denominator - something that disservice above average students who go unchallenged and who frequently become behavioral problems due to their utter boredom.
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