The Elderly Man and the Sea? Test Sanitizes Literary Texts

The New York Times ^ | 6/1/02 (for editions of 6/2/02) | N. R. Kleinfield

[weegee]

I saw a graphic on www.strangecosmos.com for an anti-PC flag.

It used the "rainbow" and was emblazened with the words:

Celebrate
Competence!

The graphic contained 3 other flags and so I didn't link it.

Good slogan though...

[weegee]

The "old man" couldn't have been that old seeing as how the man that Hemingway based the character on just died.

[babylonian]

Freberg was light years ahead of his time! I remember "Elderly Man River" very fondly!

[Black Powder]

"Even the most wonderful writers don't write literature for children to take on a test."

Then why bother with in the first place if it's not meant for them?

[Fintan]

What is it with Hillary? How in holy heck can New Yorkers fall for her??? I just don't understand it.

Ever hear of P.T. Barnum?

[John Locke]

I recently attended a high school drama production of Agatha Cristie's "Ten Little Indians".

No, the murder mystery Agatha Christie actually wrote was called "Ten Little Niggers". The title is taken from a silly British poem I won't bother quoting, but which you can find here.

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

New York exam texts `sanitized' for political correctness

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-atest02jun02.story?coll=sfla-news-nationworld

[lavaroise]

They claim we cannot distort the truth and learn science, while they give themselves the "sinless" freedom to standardize us to sovietized stupidity.

[palmer]

The answer that would be considered correct required the test taker to affirm evolution. I intentionally left it blank, knowing it would hurt my SAT score.

Can you give me some fries with that?

[Darksheare]

Fascinating. They sanitize the Classic works of literature, and yet do nothing about the Prime Time Slime crew.
How sad a commentary on our country when there is more of a fuss made over Mark Twain's use of the 'n' word or Shakespear's 'harlots' than is made of pre-teens on TV saying much worse...

[John O]

How about "Geezerville resident and the sea?" or "Old codger and the sea?". ;o)

You forgot the last half
"Old fogey and the almost infinite self-cleaning waste dump"

If we are going to be anti-PC we might as well go all out.

God Save America (Please)

[madfly]

NOW ON Fox News, sanitizing of text books!!!!!!

[Clemenza]

Gee, I remember reading a ghost story where the guy used faggots to cook his breakfast.

I have had faggots cook my breakfast. Bruce and Dick make a mean Creme Brulee French Toast!

[madfly]

Well the PC "editing" of childrens school books story WAS coming right up, until the body of a 7 year old boy was found in an lA swimming pool.

Ah another case of,

IF IT BLEEDS, IT LEADS...even on FOX!

It still may be on.

[ppaul]

BOOKMARKED
and
BUMP

[d14truth]

I thought that Hemingway book was "The Senior Citizen and the Body of Liquid" {;~)

[patriot_wes]

Thanks for the heads up.....we know it isn't about truth and academics anymore, it's about "the agenda."

[Calvin Locke]

...Body of Liquid

...the Dolphin's Domicile.
...the Halibut's House.
...the Shark's Chalet.
...the Menhaden's Mansion.
...the Hammerhead's Home.
...the Cod's Cottage.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Annie Dillard was one of them. Responding to the removal of the racial context of her passage, she wrote to the state, "What could be the purpose of an exercise testing students on such a lacerated passage - one which, finally, is neither mine nor true to my lived experience?"

Outrageous! There is no end to the self-defeating and destructive political correctness.

[Portnoy]

My favorite quote, from Ray Bradbury, on the subject:

"There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. Every minority...feels it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse.

Every dimwit editor who sees himself as the source of all dreary blanc-mange plain porridge unleavened literature, licks his guillotine and eyes the neck of any author who dares to speak above a whisper or write above a nursery rhyme."

Prologue to Fahrenheit 451