Mumsnet: school censors ORT stage 4 book!

[Susan Godsland]

We all need cheering up now and again and this Mumsnet thread did it for me:

'boglach' asks:

Ds has just bought home stage 4 story called 'come in'

the school have sealed pages 10 and 11 due to 'inappropiate visual material'

what on earth can be inappropiate in the Oxford Reading Tree?

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/14329 ... -book?pg=1

[Susan Godsland]

It seems that there are two editions - in one edition the pictures on pages 10-11 show a grinning girl toting a gun. A later (?) edition has two girls fighting and a Billy Bunter character.

Look, look. See John's blog: http://literacyblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012 ... -tree.html

[Maltesers]

The world has gone mad!

[Susan Godsland]

On the subject of censoring, read this story from New York:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/out_ ... 0CQsccdZuL

In a bizarre case of political correctness run wild, educrats have banned references to “dinosaurs,” “birthdays,” “Halloween” and dozens of other topics on city-issued tests.

That’s because they fear such topics “could evoke unpleasant emotions in the students.”

Dinosaurs, for example, call to mind evolution, which might upset fundamentalists; birthdays aren’t celebrated by Jehovah’s Witnesses; and Halloween suggests paganism.

Even “dancing’’ is taboo, because some sects object. But the city did make an exception for ballet.

The forbidden topics were recently spelled out in a request for proposals provided to companies competing to revamp city English, math, science and social-studies tests given several times a year to measure student progress.