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Diane Ravitch

Research Professor of Education at New York University and a historian of education

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The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn

By Diane Ravitch

The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn
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Before Anton Chekhov and Mark Twain can be used in school readers and exams, they must be vetted by a bias and sensitivity committee. An anthology used in Tennessee schools changed “By God!” to “By gum!” and “My God!” to “You don’t mean it.” The New York State Education Department omitted mentioning Jews in an Isaac Bashevis Singer story about prewar Poland, or blacks in Annie Dillard’s memoir of growing up in a racially mixed town. California rejected a reading book because The Little Engine That Could was male.


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