NYC School District To Ban "Loaded Words"

The New York City School District is proposing to ban more than 50 words, the district has labeled as "loaded words" from standardized testing. The Department of Education has stated that the goal of banning these words is to limit distraction during tests as well as offense to certain groups that may have to the words. A policy that the department suggests is nothing new, and not something that is exclusive to New York, citing California and Florida as other states that have similar approaches. The department stated it wanted to avoid certain words if "the topic is controversial among the adult population and might not be acceptable in a state-mandated testing situation; the topic has been overused in standardized tests or textbooks and is those overly familiar and/or boring to students; the topics appears biased against (or toward) some group of people."

Included in the "loaded words" list are such words as: divorce, dinosaurs, birthdays, halloween, Christmas, and television. Certain words are on the list to avoid alluding to other concepts. Such as dinosaurs alluding to evolution that may offend fundamentalist Christians who believe in creationism. Further, as Jehovah's Witnesses do not celebrate birthdays, the term birthday is no longer to be used. Even further, Halloween may suggest paganism, thus also may be offensive. Rock 'n' Roll was also on the avoid list.

Professor Sam Wineburg of the University of Stanford, who is an expert in education notes that the latin meaning of education is 'to go out', and that "education is not about making us feel warm and fuzzy inside".

I tend to agree. Shielding students from certain bad words seems to be a rather foolish way to prepare students for the real world. I believe fully in the protection of minority rights, and the inclusion of opinions, but by banning words such as these, aren't we also in affect trumping the rights of others and banning their inclusion of opinion in schools? By no longer including topics such as evolution, or even paganism in schools, we are preventing students from that growth of deciding what to believe.

The Department of Education response has been that the banned words do not constitute censorship, but a method for "students to complete practice exams without distraction." In my opinion, this also is a poor policy point. Education is not just about gaining knowledge and regurgitating it during a test, rather it is information to use to apply to the world. More information and knowledge leads to more thoughts and ideas. By banning these words in tests, we assume that tests are mere mechanically designed devices of testing students, instead of opening the opportunity for students to learn during a test as well. As I see it, any form of censorship or banning (beyond words that are commonly regarded as vulgar) is limiting education of our youth, and future generations.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/lifestyle/2012/03/nyc-bans-halloween-birthdays-aliens-and-more-on-school-tests/

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/28/new-york-city-schools-ban-loaded-words-from-tests/?hpt=hp_c1