Educrats Ban Founding Fathers, Mount Rushmore, Hot Dogs, Yachts, Snowmen

NewsMax.com ^ | 4/30/03 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[kattracks]

If you wonder why children in America's failed government school monopolies aren't learning, perhaps it's because P.C.-crazed educrats are too busy acting as left-wing thought police.

Out in La-La Land, educrats are rewriting history to appease those who make a career of taking offense at reality. California's textbooks are being changed as follows, according to Fox News Channel:

• Even though all the signers of Constitution were specimens of those dreaded white males, "Founding Fathers" is a no-no, to be replaced by "The Framers."

• Pictures of naughty foods such as hot dogs, soft drinks, butter (even though that's better for you than margarine) and cake are banned.

• The euphemism "senior citizen," once politically correct, is now politically incorrect. The new P.C. term: "older person." Older than whom? Who knows?

• Mount Rushmore can't be mentioned because "it appears to offend" some American Indians. ("American Indians," of course, was long ago replaced by the silly term "native Americans," even though anyone born in the U.S. is a native American.)

• American Indians can't be depicted with long braids, in rural settings or on reservations, even though many American Indians have long braids and live in rural settings or on reservations.

• Snowmen aren't allowed. Snowpersons are. Hey, that could be part of sex ed.

• Yachts can't be mentioned. Too elitist.

• "Jungle" is banned; "rain forest" is the P.C. euphemism. (Are all references to "swamp" changed to "wetlands"?)

  "I think our textbooks should to our greatest capacity be free of any type of stereotyping," Sue Stickel, who is "deputy superintendent for curriculum and instruction" for the so-called California Department of Education, told Fox News. "We need to make sure that all ethnicities are represented. We need to make sure that both males and females are represented. We need to make sure that our materials cover the full gamut."

  Others, however, know what is going on.

  "It's outright censorship," said author Diane Ravitch, who has written extensively on this school issue. "It dumbs down our textbooks, makes them bland, far less interesting than anything children might see in the movies - even in G-rated movies or TV.

  "The problems that have happened in education is that the textbook publishers and the test developers have become so sensitive to any controversy that whenever they receive a complaint it is very likely that they will remove the source of the complaint," explained Ravitch.

  And what about the complaints of those who are offended by P.C. lunacy?

  Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
  

  School Choice
  

[joesnuffy]

The History of the United States...the way it shoulda been?

[Phantom Lord]

I have been browsing DU today looking for a thread on this. Hasn't been posted yet.

[HEY4QDEMS]

The left is just another step closer to the fringe.

[kdr3]

This was on the Fox News website. I thought it was a reprint from the Onion. This is PC gone amuck.

[honeygrl]

I guess they think our children are too stupid to learn from mistakes made in history. So which group is offended by the words "swamp" and "jungle"?

[honeygrl]

"I have been browsing DU today looking for a thread on this. Hasn't been posted yet. "

If it does show up there I want to see their reaction to it. I'd love to see how anyone could possibly defend this action.

[microgood]

I believe alot of this will die with the 60s generation. Since they totally ignored all history and believe the earth was essentially created the day they were born, future generations will not take them or their beliefs seriously.

[I still care]

Oh, they will. Believe me, they will. They are all part of the thought police over there.

[Phantom Lord]

I'd love to see how anyone could possibly defend this action.

Come on. Without even trying hard you could come up with at least 10 defences for this from the left.

[I still care]

By the way, this is why many people homeschool. 10 years ago I saw problems like this in my sons' textbooks. Many homeschoolers I know specifically use texts, especially history texts, that were printed many years ago.

For early American history I use one from the 1880's. Far superior and uncensored, even though politically incorrect. And one of the best text's I ever saw was a civics text from the 1920's. It had a picture of a staircase with steps such as temperance, civility, responsibility leading up to the top which said, "Good Citizen".

[DD938]

I wonder if old "Suzie" would like to take a walk down memory lane in my old neighborhood (Newark NJ) and maybe come up with some new names for "Ghetto" and "Slum". When I was in high school I read that a rose by any other name is
still a rose. And so is a hot dog, an indian, senior citizen, swamp, jungle, crap, and FOOL. Get my drift Suzie old girly. What BULLS**T!!!!!!!!!!

[Jesse]

Sending your children to government schools borders on child abuse in some states.

[Rushmore Rocks]

As a blue-eyed blonde, perhaps I should be offended by the huge granite carving of Crazy Horse, the great American Indian.........ooops! Native American Chief that is being carved 20 miles down the road from me! Enough of this P.C. nonsense!

[-YYZ-]

Maybe they should concentrate on finding and fixing the many and varied errors and omissions in these textbooks. Guess they're too busy censoring them.

[honeygrl]

Maybe it's time to boycott California.

[Nitro]

Ouch! That's bad...

but funny.

[tet68]

So which group is offended by the words "swamp" and "jungle"?

Certainly not the Dimocrats who translate it to "quagmire".

[mlmr]

Get this. The Joint Commision of Hospital Oversight has just ruled that providers (this is doctors, and nurses to you folks) can no long write "Patient refused" in their notes becasue it is tooooo....ummmmm....NEGATIVE. Instead, providers have been instructed to write: "Patient DECLINED."

We wouldn't want to be TOOO NEGATIVE? WOULD WE???