Atheists & Agnostics
Related: About this forumX-post: New York city schools want to ban 'loaded words' from tests
New York (CNN) Divorce. Dinosaurs, Birthdays. Religion. Halloween. Christmas. Television. These are a few of the 50-plus words and references the New York City Department of Education is hoping to ban from the citys standardized tests.
The banned word list was made public and attracted considerable criticism when the citys education department released this years "request for proposal" on March 8, 2010. The request for proposal is sent to test publishers around the country trying to get the job of revamping math and English tests for the City of New York.
The Department of Education's says that avoiding sensitive words on tests is nothing new, and that New York City is not the only locale to do so. California avoids the use of the word "weed" on tests and Florida avoids the phrases that use "Hurricane" or "Wildfires," according to a statement by the New York City Department of Education.
In its request for proposal, the NYC Department of Education explained it wanted to avoid certain words if the "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 thus overly familiar and/or boring to students; the topic appears biased against (or toward) some group of people."
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/28/new-york-city-schools-ban-loaded-words-from-tests/
Rob H.
(5,351 posts)But what the tabloid failed to realize is that those "fundamentalists" who oppose evolution on religious grounds, believe wholeheartedly in dinosaurs.
Young Earth creationists, or Biblical creationists as they prefer to be called, often point to dinosaurs in making their arguments. They say dinosaurs and humans roamed Earth together, citing legends of dragons and say the fossil record shows the earth is 6,000 years old, though few paleontologists and geologists share this theory.
So because it might upset people who believe sciencey-sounding nonsense, New York City schools can't teach about dinosaurs? I loved learning about them when I was a kid--my mom would check dinosaur books out from the library for me before I could read, even. Matter of fact, I still love learning about them because so much of what was thought to be true about dinosaurs when I was a kid has changed so much since then.
mr blur
(7,753 posts)Are these people insane?