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Summary: Frightening Story of the TRUE Failure of Public Schools
Review: Nearly everyone seems to insist today that American schoolchildren are fairing more and more poorly in comparison to their counterparts around the world in our public school systems, and nearly everyone seems to have a solution in mind. However, very few understand the true failure of our public school systems, and it isn't something vouchers or more money is going to solve.Education historian Diane Ravich reveals in her book "The Language Police" how pressure groups from both the left and the right have dumbed-down and bawdlerized textbooks and test materials used by schools across our country. Most parents simply assume that today's textbooks reflect the most modern and accurate content, providing effective and informative education to their children, but Ravitch's text quickly dispels such notions. Some of her examples are downright scary: stories in which mountains or the ocean are present are rejected as "regionally biased"; California rejects "The Little Engine that Could" due to its male protagonist; the same state bans cake, chips, fast food, or soda from texts because they might somehow encourage kids to eat poorly. Fossils and dinosaurs may not be mentioned due to fear of endorsing evolution and offending fundamentalists. The elderly may only be shown jogging or particpating in active sports so as not to imply them less capable than younger individuals; likewise for the physically handicapped, who cannot be portrayed as inspiring even in true stories such as a blind man climbing a mountain! Stories are stripped down and turned to mush with no educational merit in the goal of inoffensiveness and "balance." Students end up facing fantastically unrealistic and artifical worlds so bland it's little wonder they hate school and are bored to death. Critics giving children no credit for their imaginations rewrite history to further their goals, and even the most bland and carefully gender and ethnically balanced pieces still fail to please those most vocal and easily offended. Unlike many pundits, Ravich examines the facts without political bias. Impeccably credentialled and having served in both the former Bush and Clinton administrations, she points the finger equally at the religious right and overly-sensitive left-wing groups quite accurately. Unlike many, Ravitch does offer a workable solution, too--so give her book a read and find out what we must do to save our school systems!
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Summary: The Language Police
Review: Diane Ravitch's The Language Police shines a light on a dark secret in k-12 education, namely the scandalous undermining of content standards in k-12 textbooks due to a collusion between textbook publishers and censors aimed at shielding children from anything that even remotely could be considered harmful or offensive to potential educational consumers. I had heard a few "Ripley's Believe It or Not" stories about this phenomenon -- for example, a university colleague of mine who had written a widely used high school civics text told me recently how he was asked by a California textbook review board to eliminate a diagram depicting the classic "layer cake" model of American federalism, lest it encourage kids to eat junk food -- but only after seeing Ravitch's book did I realize just how far this sort of lunacy had gone. The book meticulously documents its argument with an enormous amount of scholarly evidence, and equally meticulously tries to demonstrate that both liberals and conservatives are at fault for this problem. Ravitch has no ideological axe to grind here. She takes shots at both political correct feminists and others on the left as well as religious conservatives and others on the right, and anyone in-between who would deny our children a subtantively strong, academically sound education. It is a must-read for anyone concerned about the dumbing down of American education and the movement away from serious, free inquiry in our schools.
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Summary: thought-provoking
Review: the author argues that whitewashed textbooks are the result of editorial guidelines that respond to school boards populated by non-educators and politicians, an accurate and disturbing claim. the results are staggering and presented in an accessible, reasoned format.
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Summary: A tale so strange, it could only happen in America...
Review: This book is a goldmine of information about the words, phrases, and topics that are taboo in today's textbooks for fear of insulting radical feminists, racial minorities, the elderly, or handicapped people. While the book is only about 150 pages long, there is a wealth of information within those pages. On top of that, this book includes a lengthy list of words (not necessarily ones that were mentioned in the regular text) of off-limits subjects and a little information on why. While the book is short, and while it does seem to sound a little repetitive, it is still a fascinating book that anybody with a child in school should read. Diane Ravitch covers censorship in literature and history books in chapters dedicated to the subjects. While she touches on censorship in math and science, they take a backseat to the deplorable censorship in literature and history books. This is a fascinating book that will make you shake your head in disbelief on many occasions. A very good book!
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Summary: Important, and fascinating topic
Review: While Ms. Ravitch's topic and discussion of textbook and testing censorship is a stunning revelation and a fascinating topic, her book does not do justice to all of the issues. Ms. Ravitch could probably have benefited from a good editor, and some organization to condense much of the information of the first six chapters into one or two. Many of her points about the influence of gender specific groups, nationality specific groups, religious organizations, and others, as well as some of the specific examples of test and text-book wording and/or topic changes are repeated in these first six chapters on several occasions. The summary of this repetition seems to boil down to the fact that censorship of tests and textbooks is so similar they may as well be identical, with only the names of the groups who are creating them and influencing them changing slightly. As Ms. Ravitch continues her discussion of the new regime of "politically correct" terminology additions and "stereotypical" or "offensive" description removals in texts used to teach literature and history, she discusses the important facts surrounding the perceived need to "sanitize" literature and history for children but she fails to acknowledge the difficulty(or offer solutions)in determining what "literature" is. She also seems to completely overlook the challenge of discussing an additional fifty years worth of history (from the time of the post-WW2 textbooks she appears to hold a fondness for) without eliminating or condensing SOMETHING. Finally, her suggestions for thwarting the "language police" are obvious and although she suggests that we work to stop the practice of statewide textbook adoptions, particularly in Texas and California, she does not supply us with names or organizations to contact or suggestions for HOW to do so. An extremely important topic for parents, educators, librarians, writers, readers, and anyone concerned about the education of the youth of the United States, Ravitch's book is a bit repetitive, somewhat lacking in focus, but is a good introduction to some of the problems educators are facing today.
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Summary: Let 'em Eat Meusli!
Review: EVERYONE should read this book, or soon we will be reading "Lady of the Flies" (appropriately Bowdlerized, of course) and "The Lord of the Lake". Thomas MANn's books will be banned. And that's the end of ee cummings' poetry. Louisa May Alcott might survive, since she wrote both "Little Women" (not girls) AND "Little Men" (not boys). We will no longer visit MANitoba (sexist)or the Red Sea (don't dis the Indians). What about the Holy See? Isn't that an insult to the "visually challenged"? And on and on ad nauseum (or rather, to the point of nausea -- most age-challenged persons (read "kids") are so sunk in these educational doldrums that Latin is beyond them). The one book that will most certainly be banned, that will become an un-book, is George Orwell's "1984", since the pablum-purveyors will never take a chance on students getting a glimpse of what is being done to them.
One wonders what the teachers who feed their students an unrelieved diet of this denatured stodge are thinking -- anything? Fortunately, kids are far more curious than their deluded, timid, politically-correct (now there's a loaded phrase!) elders suspect. There WILL be a backlash -- let us pray (oops!) it happens before the events in "Farenheit 451" are carried out -- for real.
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Summary: We Don't Need No Education
Review: As a policeman (excuse me, 'police officer') this book was something of a revelation. Ms. Ravitch covers an area much more sinister than simple law enforcement. It was shocking to discover that youngsters in North America appear to be brainwashed from a very young age to accept literary mediocrity in their daily dealings at school. The bowdlerized texts that grind "reading materials into pabulum" appear both pathetic and, ultimately, self-defeating. Pathetic because sanitized reading material denies students access to the real world, and self-defeating because American youth, despite hailing from the world's only superpower, will find themselves ill-equipped to deal with the complexities of the modern world. Ms. Ravitch covers in great detail, and from a very personal perspective, an area that should be of grave concern to parents today. She describes the circumstances surrounding why words such as "God", "jungle" and "yacht" can be banned from inclusion in school textbooks, why novels by Mark Twain, classics by Chaucer, Shakespeare and Dickens and, perhaps most amazingly, texts about the founding of the United States of America itself, can be edited beyond recognition. Topics as varied as dinosaurs, euthanasia, sex and winter holidays are apparently taboo in classrooms. I found this an incredulous, disheartening and yet compelling read. Though slightly long-winded and repetitive in parts, Ms. Ravitch brings home some harsh home truths about American (excuse me, 'people of the United States') education. A must read for people of the United States with children.
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Summary: We are making Our Kids Dumber
Review: This is one of the best books that I've read about education in a long while. Dr. Ravitch give a very unbiased look at how people and groups try to have language changed that does not meet their liking. A couple of examples are instead of saying "Adam and Eve" say "Eve and Adam." The reason is this is to demonstrate that males do not take priority over females. or "Chick" with is banned because it is sexist. There are more examples than I can shake a stick at. It is amazing the power of these groups. Textbook publishers have also taken changing lit because it does not conform to a state or school district liking. This is just so silly. How can a child learn or read if they cannot read what they true text is. Also how can children learn about history if we censor language? To understand history you have to understand language. The reason is how can you gain an understand for the reasons why people spook they way they do without understanding context of why they were saying it. Dr. Ravitch also points out how school books have taken the fun out of lit. You have example of people not including Emile Dickson poems because they do not use proper grammar and miss use a period or dashes. Textbook publishers will put those in and there by completely changing the meaning and they way the poem is read. They same can be true of other lit. In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 the publishers for that book to schools changed the ending and other language. They whole point of that book was to get people not to read and to keep they glued to they TV. Ironic I'd say. Here are textbook publishers changing a book that deals with what they are doing. This intern gets children and teens to not enjoy reading and give up. I should know. I hated reading for the longest time until i stopped reading what they school wanted to read and started reading what I wanted to or went to the library and checkout the same book and found differences. It is no surprise that our children are not learning. Why should they when we make books boring and take all the fun out of the. Dr. Ravitch goes into detail about history books. How they no conflict in them. If there is no conflict then how can there be history. That is what history is all about. Textbook publishers, people and groups take out anything that might offend a child, and, or, give rise to the idea that American is not always wise in it's thinking. They book on the whole is very balanced. Dr. Ravitch looks at both the left and the right and give equal time to pointing out they flaws and reasons for they way they think. Dr. Ravitch takes a middle of the road look at they children are learning that everyone is equal and no one is better than anyone else. They to only go home and watch violent TV and play gore video games. It is just stupid. And if how in the state of California you can have words like "gum, tea, whipped cream, pies, honey, jam..." because the state of California says that they are unhealthy. Give me a break. If a story has one of those words in it the story must be taking out or change the word. One of the best parts of the book is in the back which listed all the words that are banned or to be avoided along with any type of stereotyped that you can think of for a group. one example of this is that old people are to be see as fixing their roof or running. Now there are many old people who can do that. but lets get real there is no way my grandfather would be able to fix a roof, and my grandmother would not be up for running the Boston Marathon. This is an important book to read. I think everyone should read this book, whether you have children or not. This has got to stop. And, Dr. Ravitch gives insite in how to stop this trend.
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Summary: you have the right to be a right wing whiner!
Review: how do you plead your case, Ms. Ravitch. Basically, you have the "i've got mine so screw you" crowd clothing themselves as victims. It would be one thing of they told the truth. They don't.
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Summary: Profound implications for what they teach in public schools
Review: Public School textbooks are chosen by curriculum committees, most of which work at the school district and state levels. Though Ravich doesn't reflect much on this fact, taking it as a given, it is perhaps the root of the problem. The staff and teachers of an individual school don't have the freedom to choose the materials they use for teaching. This is wrong from the very start. Teachers do a better job if they teach what they know. I use can effectively use recipes in teaching fractions because I know about cooking. If it is working for me, my kids are learning math, culture, a bit of reading and maybe a practical skill. It wouldn't work at all for another teacher. Now to Ravich's argument. Textbook and text selections are made by state level committees in Texas and California. These committees are subject to immense pressure from both left and right wing organizations on every conceivable subject: evolution, abortion, homosexuality, multiculturalism, and on down the line. The textbook and test creators are businesspeople. They want to avoid conflict. They do it by reducing their products to the consistency of pap, inoffensive to everybody but by the same token uninspiring to everybody. The states pick it and dictate that the teachers teach it. I suppose it makes no difference to somebody whose vision of himself is as an automaton in a huge state bureaucracy, charged with dispensing small doses of standardized learning. I am sure also that there are teachers who reluctantly adopt the role of automatons and teach what is given them. People with passion are ditching the public schools. I have had kids in, taught and served as a board member of private schools. All of them in our area are swamped with applications. Why? The teachers really care. A big part of that caring is that the teachers can choose what they teach. They do it according to their own interests and the skills of the makeup of their individual classes. They meet frequently to make sure that their curricula fit together year to year and across courses. I thought about political correctness Thursday as I substituted for a Spanish class. As the classroom teacher had left an assignment for the students to work on, I was able to engage a very intelligent Marxist in a discussion in Spanish about the revolution by the indigenous people in Chiapas, Mexico. Public school would never entertain materials on either Sandinistas or Contras, or for that matter, any significant dialog about Palestinians and Israelis. Sad, because it is issues like these, in which the kids are invested, that lead to the best teaching and learning. Homeschoolers have grown from a few thousand to a couple of million over the last two decades. The moms I have talked to are passionate about letting their kids select an interest and pursue it. One kid liked Chinese food, then saw a picture of the Great Wall of China in a picture taken from space. He spent a month visiting museums, reading and writing about Chinese history. What is most profound is that this student liked school and this teacher liked teaching. Why? Because they did it their way. I hardly need to add that the standard pose of most schoolkids is total boredom. It is more than an affectation. I've digressed to a bigger issue, the fact that almost every aspect of public education is highly standardized, highly politicized and highly bureaucratized. Ravich's book shines an intense light one nasty symptom within a far more pervasive syndrome.
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