Posted on 12/06/2008 5:18:47 PM PST by bruinbirdman
Oxford University Press has removed words like "aisle", "bishop", "chapel", "empire" and "monarch" from its Junior Dictionary and replaced them with words like "blog", "broadband" and "celebrity". Dozens of words related to the countryside have also been culled.
The publisher claims the changes have been made to reflect the fact that Britain is a modern, multicultural, multifaith society.
But academics and head teachers said that the changes to the 10,000 word Junior Dictionary could mean that children lose touch with Britain's heritage.
"We have a certain Christian narrative which has given meaning to us over the last 2,000 years. To say it is all relative and replaceable is questionable," said Professor Alan Smithers, the director of the centre for education and employment at Buckingham University. "The word selections are a very interesting reflection of the way childhood is going, moving away from our spiritual background and the natural world and towards the world that information technology creates for us."
An analysis of the word choices made by the dictionary lexicographers has revealed that entries from "abbey" to "willow" have been axed. Instead, words such as "MP3 player", "voicemail" and "attachment" have taken their place.
Lisa Saunders, a worried mother who has painstakingly compared entries from the junior dictionaries, aimed at children aged seven or over, dating from 1978, 1995, 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2007, said she was "horrified" by the vast number of words that have been removed, most since 2003.
"The Christian faith still has a strong following," she said. "To eradicate so many words associated with the Christianity will have a big effect on the numerous primary schools who use it."
Ms Saunders realised words were being removed when she was helping her son with his homework and discovered that "moss" and "fern", which were in editions up
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
> It great to see Brits like your self in the UK fighting the good fight!
(big grin!) Cheers for that! I’m a Brit by birth. Born in Canada and a Kiwi by naturalization (3 passports)
> Obviously you are a Brit and upset at Muslims running your nation.
Yup! Too right — I’m upset at muslims running *any* nation. I live in New Zealand where we are all free to choose our own religion. Or choose not to. That is how it should be.
Now you get to watch what’s in store for you this time.
> Now you get to watch whats in store for you this time.
Too right — and likewise!
apt reference.
Nowadays, the environment has changed. We are also much more multicultural. People don't go to Church as often as before. Our understanding of religion is within multiculturalism.
For those poor British Children not getting taught proper history in school, maybe this amazing ad will help.
12 Decades of English History in 2 minutes.
http://www.hovisbakery.co.uk/our-ads/
There was a line in the 1984 movie I will always remember, “Beautiful thing, the destruction of words.”.
Newspeak begins in earnest.
Good one.
Orwell was a prophet.
Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia.
> Say, to people like Vineeta Gupta, head of children’s dictionaries at Oxford University Press:
(GACK!) But but but she’s an Indian. What business has she got deciding the direction of the English language? She gets to do that on the day I get to decide the direction of Hindi.
> “Nowadays, the environment has changed. We are also much more multicultural. People don’t go to Church as often as before. Our understanding of religion is within multiculturalism.”
She ought to speak for herself. I understand religion within the Bible as God’s Word. Multiculturalism plays no part in that exchange.
Your historical ‘knowledge’ is shocking. Just shocking.
There are so many errors, distortions and outright lies in that post, I almost dont know where to start.
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