Red Pencils, Low Marks - How the diversity industry dumbs down American education

WSJ Opinion Journal.com ^ | April 22, 2003 | GARY ROSEN

[Stand Watch Listen]

Last spring a Brooklyn mother named Jeanne Heifetz noticed something fishy on New York state's standardized high-school English exam: an excerpt from a book she'd once read had been altered. Her curiosity piqued, she gathered 10 exams from the past three years and discovered that most of the literary passages had been expurgated. References to race, religion, sex and other hot topics had been removed or softened. A "fat" boy had become "heavy," a "gringo" was now an "American," and a childhood memoir about visiting "the Negro section of town" had been stripped of racial content. Elie Wiesel's declaration that "Man, who was created in God's image, wants to be free as God is free" had been reduced to the lifeless slogan: "Man wants to be free."

[Stand Watch Listen]

Here are links to various education threads (also containing numerous helpful links)

FReegards

Teaching Tomorrow's Teachers: Instructor To The Trustafarian Class
Source: Toogood Reports; Published: April 11, 2003; Author:| Bernard Chapin

How Not to Teach Math
Source: City Journal; Published: 7 March 2003; Author: Matthew Clavel

Government Schools Have U.S. On The Fast Track To Third-World Status
Source: Toogood Reports; Published: March 6, 2003; Author: Bob Ellis

Sodom and Gomorrah University
Source: WorldNetDaily.com: Published: February 19, 2003; Author: Michelle Malkin

The Union That Killed Education
Source: newsmax.com; Published: February. 17, 2003; Author: Paul Craig Roberts

Walter E. Williams: Inferior Education of Black Americans
Source:CNSNews.com; Published: February 05, 2003; Author: Walter E. Williams

Union Fraud Underscores Need for School Vouchers
Source: CNSNEWS.com; Published: February 05, 2003; Author: Linda Chavez

Time for public schools to throw in the towel?
Source: WorldNetDaily.com; Published: January 27, 2003; Author: Dr. Laura Schlessinger

My Classroom From Hell
Source: The Wall Street Journal; Published: January 24, 2003; Author: Joshua Kaplowitz

Can more money make schools better?
Source: TownHall.com; Published: January 21, 2003; Author: Phyllis Schlafly

Are public schools constitutional?
Source: NewsWithViews; Published: JANUARY 20, 2003; Auythor: Lynn M. Stuter

The intellectual rape of Oakland's schools
Source: TownHall.com; Published: January 17, 2003; Author: David Horowitz

Hip-hop hogwash in the schools (Michelle Malkin)
Source: TownHall.com; Published: January 15, 2003; Author: Michelle Malkin

Dumbed Down and Dumber Still
Source: The American Prowler; Published: January 15, 2003; Author: By George Neumayr

Washington's education establishment
Source: TownHall.com; Published: January 8, 2003; Author:Walter Williams

NEA Hastens Death of American Education
Source: INSIGHT magazine; Published: January 6, 2003; Author: Ralph de Toledano

White Teachers Fleeing Black Schools
Source: Newsmax; Published:January 1, 2003; Author: Chad Roedemeier

Fiddling whilst Rome burns
Source: TownHall.com; Published: December 26, 2002; Author: Walter Williams

Government School Monopolies Leave Children Behind
Source: Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty; Published: December 4, 2002; Author: Clint Green

The silence of the lambs: McMillan blasts bureaucrats for destroying public education
Source: WorldNetDaily.com; Published: August 15, 2002; Author: Craige McMillan

Taking Charge: Let's Stop Aiding and Abetting Academicians' Folly
Source: HOME EDUCATION magazine; Published: July-August 2002; Author: Larry and Susan Kaseman

’Open Directory’ --Society/Issues/Education/Education_Reform

Deconstructing Public Education
Source: www.newsmax.com; Published: July 26, 2002; Author: Diane Alden

Specious Science In Our Schools
Source: Toogood Reports; Published: July 9, 2002; Author: Alan Caruba

SYMPOSIUM Q: Is the National Education Association Being Fair to Its Religious Objectors?
Source: INSIGHT magazine; Published: June 10, 2002; Authors NO: Stefan Gleason ////\\\\ YES: Bob Chase

Public Sector Subverting Productive Industry
Source: Toogood Reports; Published: May 16, 2002; Author: Henry Pelifian

History of America's Education Part 2: Noah Webster and Early America
Source: Sierra Times; Published: March 27, 2002; Author: April Shenandoah

How Communist is Public Education?
Source: sierratimes.com; Published:March 22, 2002; Author: Chuck Morse

History of America's Education Part 1: Johnny is in trouble
Source: Sierra Times; Published: March 20, 2002; Author: April Shenandoah

Audit rips Georgia schools' curriculum
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Published: March 11, 2002; Author:JAMES SALZER

Why schools fail: Samuel Blumenfeld warns Bush's education legislation is ineffective
Source: WorldNetDaily.com; Published: March 2, 2002; Author: Samuel Blumenfeld

Public School Isn't Like I Remember It
Source: Too Good Reports; Published: February 28, 2002; Author: Phyllis Schlafly

What Is Lacking In Our Educational System
Source: Too Good Reports; Published: February 28, 2002; Author: Ben Cerruti

The charade of education reform
Source: WorldNetDaily.com; Published: February 2, 2002; Author: Dr. Samuel L. Blumenfeld

American public schools: Working just as designed
Source: WorldNetDaily.com; Published: January 21, 2002; Author: Vox Day

High Schools Fail Thanks To Grade Inflation And Social Promotion
Source: Toogood Reports; Published: December 5, 2001; Author: Vin Suprynowicz

WHY AMERICANS CAN’T READ
Source: Accuracy in Media; Published: December 4, 2001; Author: Reed Irvine and Cliff Kincaid

The Failing Teacher and the Teachers' Code of Silence
Source: CNSNews.com; Published: December 3, 2001; Author: Glenn Sacks

Time for outrage! Linda Bowles reports latest results in America's public schools
Source: WorldNetDaily.com; Published: November 27, 2001; Author: Linda Bowles

Illiterate in Boston: Samuel Blumenfeld explains U.S.'s ongoing reading problem
Source: WorldNetDaily.com; Published: July 20, 2001; Author: Samuel Blumenfeld

NEA - Let our children go!
Source: WorldNet Daily; Published: June 23. 2001; Author: Linda Harvey

COOKING THE BOOKS AT EDUCATION
Source: Accuracy In Media; Published: June 5, 2001; Author: Cliff Kincaid

Why Do Schools Play Games With Students' Minds ?
Source: The Detroit News; Published: April 1, 2001; Author: Thomas Sowell

The Public School Nightmare: Why fix a system designed to destroy individual thought?
Source: http://home.talkcity.com/LibraryDr/patt/homeschl.htm; Author: John Taylor Gatto

Dumbing down teachers
Source: USNews.com; Published: February 21, 2001; Author: John Leo

Free Republic links to education related articles (thread#8)
Source: Free Republic; Published: 3-20-2001; Author: Various

Are children deliberately 'dumbed down' in school? {YES!!!}
Source: World Net Daily; Published: May 13, 2001; Author: Geoff Metcalf {Interview}

Could they really have done it on purpose?
Source: THE LIBERTARIAN; Published: 07/28/2000; Author: Vin Suprynowicz

New Book Explores America's Education Catastrophe
Source: Christian Citizen USA; Published: April 2000; Author: William H. Wild

Deliberately dumbing us down (Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt's, "The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America"
Source: WorldNetDaily.com; Published: December 2,1999; Author: Samuel L. Blumenfeld

Deconstructing the Western Mind: Gramscian-Marxist Subversion of Faith and Education
Source: www.petersnet; Published: Winter 1997; Author: Frank Morriss

Littleton Crisis to Government Control

The UN Plan for Your Mental Health

Lexington Institute

NonPartisan Action For a Better Redding

Quality of Education Commentary, Opinion, and Book Reviews

[billorites]

My kids will go to a public school when Hell freezes.

[Stand Watch Listen]

indexing

[Izzy Dunne]

He who lets another educate his young deserves what he gets.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Just another example that the left's primary goal is to destroy America. Forget the high sounding names and the sales pitch, just look at the results. They are not "unintended consequences", they are the goal.

[headsonpikes]

"They are not 'unintended consequences', they are the goal."

Exactly. To suppose otherwise would be to think that government policies NEVER work.

Bureaucrats may be inefficient, but they are not totally incompetent.

The Public Schools are WMDs aimed at America's children.

[Lee Heggy]

I've been an Art History Prof at a small mid-western college for almost thirty years. The students we enroll are by and large very bright but extremely ignorant. Some are barely literate. Our public schools have many dedicated and hard working teachers who can do an excellent job of teaching when they are allowed to. School Boards should spend their time running their respective district's finances. Curriculum development is the responsibility of those who are in the classroom not the Boardroom. 90% of all the educational 'theory' I've ever read is bunk. If you want a young person to do or say something just tell them not to.

[Question_Assumptions]

Winston Smith. Paging Winston Smith.

[Salvation]

Catholic Education Resource Center

Textbook Censorship

NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS
HOME / DONATE / ONE LEVEL UP / ABOUT NCPA / CONTACT US

Textbook Censorship

Daily Policy Digest

Education Issues / School Curriculum

Thursday, April 17, 2003

Textbook publishers have been censoring authors' work for 30 years, says education historian Diane Ravitch, author of The Language Police. Besieged by pressure groups from both the left and right, educators and editors have developed detailed ''bias and sensitivity guidelines.''

This includes deleting images, ideas and words considered sexist, racist, discriminatory or offensive to feminists, the religious right, the elderly, the handicapped, Native Americans and most ethnic groups. For example,

• A sharp-eyed parent last year discovered that literary passages on New York state's high school Regents English exam had been censored to make them more politically correct -- for example, references to God had been deleted, ''a skinny Italian boy'' was changed to ''a thin Italian boy,'' and ''a gringo lady'' to ''an American lady,'' often without writers' permission.

• The state of California issued a list of ''foods to avoid in textbooks'' because they're unhealthy -- including bacon, butter, coffee, cream cheese, French fries, gravies, ketchup, mayonnaise and fruit punch.

• One publisher said the state asked it to remove an illustration of a birthday party because children were gathered around a cake, ''which the state does not consider nutritious.''

Most states help schools pay only for those books approved by a state panel. But with the consolidation of educational publishing over the past few decades, only four major publishers still produce textbooks.

And because California and Texas have the largest student populations (and markets), publishers generally tailor their wares to the requirements of those states. So pressure groups can influence textbooks nationwide by focusing on Sacramento and Austin.

Ravitch says more local control of textbook selection would help the censorship problem.

Source: Greg Toppo, "Textbook examples of PC Schools have put sensitivity ahead of truth," USA Today, April 17, 2003.

For text
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20030417/5078122s.htm

For more on School Curriculum
http://www.ncpa.org/iss/edu/

[Mind-numbed Robot]

(Help me decide: Is the Left morally corrupt and intellectually bankrupt, or vice versa?)

I vote verse visa.

[headsonpikes]

"I vote verse visa."

You're forgetting Asimov's First Law.

If you think you're numbed now, wait 'til we remove your batteries.

;^)

[OXENinFLA]

Bump for later

[longtermmemmory]

Elie Wiesel's declaration that "Man, who was created in God's image, wants to be free as God is free" had been reduced to the lifeless slogan: "Man wants to be free."



* * * * * * * * * ***

then the left will change "man wants to be free." to "man wants" and then to "thought crime".

everyone should read 1984 it is scary how many tools there the left uses. (get the tape or the cliff's notes if time does not permit a full reading)

[ladylib]

And dangerous too:

http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/4/212003e.asp

[ladylib]

Shouldn't it be "People want to be free"? Or maybe "People just wanna be free"?

We can't have "Man" wants to be free can we?

[longtermmemmory]

your entire post is a hate crime because you used the word "man"

sarcasm off

[Van Jenerette]

...for class.

[George Frm Br00klyn Park]

SWL, If I didn't know better, I'd call the people who push this stuff "silly". But, I have learned that they personify pure unadulterated evil. Peace and love, George.

[Stand Watch Listen]

FYI...

“ A Pretty Good Student”--- (A Pretty Good Country)
The Osgood File,
CBS via Ann Landers column...
November 7, 2001 by Charles Osgood

There once was a pretty good student,
Who-sat in a pretty good class
And was taught by a pretty good teacher,
Who always let pretty good pass.

He wasn’t terrific at reading,
He wasn’t a whiz-bang at math,
But for him, education was leading
Straight down a pretty good path.

He didn’t find school too exciting,
But he wanted to do pretty well,
And he did have some trouble with writing,
And nobody had taught him to spell

When doing arithmetic problems,
Pretty good was regarded as fine.
Five plus five didn’t always add up to ten,
A pretty good answer was nine.

The pretty good class that he sat in,
Was part of a pretty good school,
And the student was not an exception,
On the contrary, he was the rule.

The pretty good school that he went to
Was there in a pretty good town.
And nobody there seemed to notice
He could not tell a verb from a noun.

The pretty good student in fact was
Part of a pretty good mob.
And the first time he knew what he lacked was
When he looked for a pretty good job.

It was then, when he sought a position,
He discovered that life could be tough.
And he soon had a sneaky suspicion
Pretty good might not be good enough.

The pretty good town in our story
Was part of pretty good state.
Which had pretty good aspirations,
And prayed for a pretty good fate.

There once was a pretty good nation,
Pretty proud of the greatness it had,
Which learned much too late,
If you want to be great,
Pretty good is, in fact, pretty bad.

[gcruse]

90% of all the educational 'theory' I've ever read is bunk.

I would think that educational theory would be
the core of teacher training.  Am I off base to
think that having to have a college degree to teach
is more than the field should require?