Standardized testing or sanitized testing?

[Duke87 1,070]

Which might not seem like such a big deal, until you see the list...

Abuse (physical, sexual, emotional, or psychological)

Alcohol (beer and liquor), tobacco, or drugs

Birthday celebrations (and birthdays)

Bodily functions

Cancer (and other diseases)

Catastrophes/disasters (tsunamis and hurricanes)

Celebrities

Children dealing with serious issues

Cigarettes (and other smoking paraphernalia)

Computers in the home (acceptable in a school or library setting)

Crime

Death and disease

Divorce

Evolution

Expensive gifts, vacations, and prizes

Gambling involving money

Halloween

Homelessness

Homes with swimming pools

Hunting

Junk food

In-depth discussions of sports that require prior knowledge

Loss of employment

Nuclear weapons

Occult topics (i.e. fortune-telling)

Parapsychology

Politics

Pornography

Poverty

Rap Music

Religion

Religious holidays and festivals (including but not limited to Christmas, Yom Kippur, and Ramadan)

Rock-and-Roll music

Running away

Sex

Slavery

Terrorism

Television and video games (excessive use)

Traumatic material (including material that may be particularly upsetting such as animal shelters)

Vermin (rats and roaches)

Violence

War and bloodshed

Weapons (guns, knives, etc.)

Witchcraft, sorcery, etc.

(source)

Not wanting to bring up sex or drugs I get. But most of this is politically correct nonsense. Can't bring up signs of affluence since poor kids might get offended. Can't bring up birthdays since Jehovah's Witnesses might get offended. Can't bring up evolution because the creationists (which New York City is utterly crawling with) might get offended. Can't bring up slavery because black kids might get offended. Can't bring up terrorism because Muslims might get offended. Can't bring up junk food because health nut parents might get offended. And so on.

Lovely, isn't it?

  Edited March 28, 2012 by Duke87  

[Easy Bakes 253]

Sooooooo whats left to put on on the test?

I guess we cant learn anything about WW2 because if i remembercorrectly from my tests i think the Germans had guns at some point during that "altercation"

eventually we will just give kids random jobs at about 16 years old and retire them at 70.

[Meg 368]

so . . . reality is irrelevant?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

"Words Have Wings" - a title of a text book I had in elementary school.

What utter stupidity! I guess they won't be allowing most of the classical works of literature in their English classes, or have to use Bowdlerized editions. What do you suppose they would do with the last scene in Macbeth when Lady M. is laying it on pretty thick? I think they'd have to omit the whole passage, and that destroys the whole plot. Hamlet is out. Too many swords and daggers, ghosts too. Midsummer Night's Dream is full of sexual innuendo. So no Shakespeare. No Mark Twain, either. Too many Edit.--hym

What you see here is a failure of a system to realize that there are more agendas than keeping your job and/or avoiding irate parents, who don't do much of a job anyway, because they run out of bubble wrap once the kid hits the school yard.

You can't protect children from the elements of the vernacular. It is better to take these terms up and explain them than to just stick your heads in an improbably place, and try to avoid all the stink.

[Jazzmaster 716]

Everyone's gotta get offended by something.....

The school system has no problem with me reading books like A Clockwork Orange though. I seriously don't get it.

  Edited March 29, 2012 by Yoshiisland  

[Cockatoo 2,256]

Rock-and-Roll music

What is this... the 1960's?

[Easy Bakes 253]

Rock-and-Roll music

What is this... the 1960's?

Nope these people still think its 1940.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Rock-and-Roll music

What is this... the 1960's?

Nope these people still think its 1940.

The truth is that they are not thinking at all. They are educaterers, and they are catering to some hidden agenda. One of the worst propaganda tools is the education system. If you can control it, you don't have much need to thought police after that.

"Protecting" school children from the facts of life means that they will get cruel surprises later. It is foolish and counter-productive.

[emperordaniel 1,281]

Most of this looks rediculous already... but how could homes with SWIMMING POOLS possibly be offensive?

"Hey Roy! You know that kid a few blocks away?"

"Yeah?"

"He has a small swimming pool in his backyard."

"Oh my gosh, I am so offended!"

Utterly rediculous. :|

[Easy Bakes 253]

Most of this looks rediculous already... but how could homes with SWIMMING POOLS possibly be offensive?

"Hey Roy! You know that kid a few blocks away?"

"Yeah?"

"He has a small swimming pool in his backyard."

"Oh my gosh, I am so offended!"

Utterly rediculous. :|

It not that they are offended its the people running the public schools some how think the kids egos will be crushed if they realize their parents are to poor to afford a pool.It's all part of "self esteem" is everything movement.Non competitive sports were every one get a ribbon,bad grades are ok if your happy with that.Kids raised this way get a huge shock

when the get into real life.

  Edited March 31, 2012 by Easy Bakes  

[Duke87 1,070]

I've seen this philosophy even sorta carry over into real life. Recently everyone on the team for the project I work on (30-something people) was presented with an award for a job well done last year (we met our goals and all that). Now, granted, we did perform very well and it was a team effort - and we would not have been awarded had we not performed well. But the award seems kinda meaningless to me when I share it with so many other people. They didn't single out the most prominent couple of contributors and give them a sort of "MVP" award, they just gave an award to everyone. And they were all just pieces of paper, no one was actually presented with anything of value, which just makes them even more meaningless.

My office mate has his proudly on display. I make fun of him for that. Mine is stuffed in my desk drawer in a stack of miscellaneous pieces of paper, right on top of the meaningless piece of paper award I got last year.

As they say, awards are like hemorrhoids...

[Easy Bakes 253]

I've seen this philosophy even sorta carry over into real life. Recently everyone on the team for the project I work on (30-something people) was presented with an award for a job well done last year (we met our goals and all that). Now, granted, we did perform very well and it was a team effort - and we would not have been awarded had we not performed well. But the award seems kinda meaningless to me when I share it with so many other people. They didn't single out the most prominent couple of contributors and give them a sort of "MVP" award, they just gave an award to everyone. And they were all just pieces of paper, no one was actually presented with anything of value, which just makes them even more meaningless.

My office mate has his proudly on display. I make fun of him for that. Mine is stuffed in my desk drawer in a stack of miscellaneous pieces of paper, right on top of the meaningless piece of paper award I got last year.

As they say, awards are like hemorrhoids...

A company i used to work for did something similar except they put up a plaque in the office with a photo of the team members who exceeded their goals and such.

I don't mind the plaques and such as long as it come's with a monetary award as well.

After all if you exceed your goals you made more money for the company.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

When I was working, I put all such stuff in a file labeled "Leather Medals". 100 leather medals are destroyed by 1 "aw sh..". Most companies don't care what you have done in the past. The cry is "What have you done for me lately?".

But back to topic:

Schools are supposed to prepare students to step into the workplace eventually. Continuing to wrap them in insulation just makes the blow, when it comes, all the worse.

Students need to be exposed to failure, frustration, and the vernacular language as she is spoken in real life. The "bad" words should be discussed and explained thoroughly when they come up. This is especially true of the words you wouldn't use in front of your grandparents. The students need to know when such languages is unacceptable.

They also desperately need instruction in politesse.

[Wiimeiser 444]

Guess I have something else to add to my RPG Maker VX Ace Half-Fangame.

Which I just closed up for the day.

And on top of the fact it involves Kim Dotcom and his assistants being turned into an eldritch abomination by the rulers of China, North Korea, Australia and the US as a piracy deterrent.

[Shadow Assassin 336]

And this sort of thing is why the world is going to hell in a handbasket.

[Odainsaker 2,135]

At first I was tempted to counter that sometimes such lists are meant not so much to protect children directly from the particular proscribed topics in the list, but to protect children from those in authority who have or would misuse their authority to force their own agendas upon children through the use of the proscribed topic. Afterall, not too long ago we had a Georgia elementary school issue horribly misguided math assignments involving calculating the number of beatings a black slave should receive. The teaching and testing of mathematics upon elementary school kids was derailed by some absurdist political effort to bring social awareness of the labors and suffering of historical slavery, and while many decried the particularly gross examples used in the assignment, it was really the foolhearty indoctrination attempt that was most offensive. Perhaps, next time, for the more advanced classes in other states with a different racial demographic, we can use the average volume of rail boxcars to tally how many packed cattle trains it takes to finally cleanse Europa of undesirable people! At some point, you must end up with taboo lists to restrain the educators from dangerously treating children as captive audiences for prosetylized Crazy.

However, the opening article shows that the administrators were not even even thinking in the above mindset, but really did think the topic of "homes with swimming pools" would itself drive children to personal anguish and self despair. Absurd!

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

There is no accounting for distaste.