Diane Ravitch, Alfred A. Knopf Publishers
April 2003
Diane Ravitch's important and troubling new book, subtitled "how pressure groups restrict what children learn," is one you'll want to read and keep and refer back to. It explains how nearly all of the instructional materials that U.S. school children encounter--textbooks, readers, even test questions--have been dulled and dumbed by the forces of political correctness, "bias" and "sensitivity." At first, the push to dullness came from watchdog groups on left and right. How, however, it's been internalized by the publishing (and testing) industry, which subjects everything it sells into the school market to ridiculous self-censorship. Ravitch includes a 30-page appendix--a "glossary of banned words, usages, stereotypes and topics"--that will make you laugh and then cry. For parents (and brave educators) who want to resist, she also supplies a 30-page list of "classic" children's literature that one could encourage kids to read if one is not terrified of the language cops. The ISBN is 0375414827, the publisher is Knopf, and you can find more information athttp://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=0375414827. See also "Textbook examples of PC Schools have put sensitivity ahead of truth, author says," by Greg Toppo, USA Today, April 17, 2003.
