{"product_id":"9780375414824","title":"The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn","description":"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. \u003cbr\u003eDiane Ravitch maintains that America’s students are compelled to read insipid texts that have been censored and bowdlerized, issued by publishers who willingly cut controversial material from their books—a case of the bland leading the bland. \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Language Police \u003c\/i\u003eis the first full-scale exposé of this cultural and educational scandal, written by a leading historian. It documents the existence of an elaborate and well-established protocol of beneficent censorship, quietly endorsed and implemented by test makers and textbook publishers, states, and the federal government. School boards and bias and sensitivity committees review, abridge, and modify texts to delete potentially offensive words, topics, and imagery. Publishers practice self-censorship to sell books in big states.  \u003cbr\u003eTo what exactly do the censors object? A typical publisher’s guideline advises that \u003cbr\u003e• Women cannot be depicted as caregivers or doing\u003cbr\u003ehousehold chores.\u003cbr\u003e• Men cannot be lawyers or doctors or plumbers.\u003cbr\u003e They must be nurturing helpmates.\u003cbr\u003e• Old people cannot be feeble ordependent; they\u003cbr\u003e must jog or repair the roof.\u003cbr\u003e• A story that is set in the mountains discriminates\u003cbr\u003e against students from flatlands.\u003cbr\u003e• Children cannot be shown as disobedient or in\u003cbr\u003e conflict with adults.\u003cbr\u003e• Cake cannot appear in a story because it is not\u003cbr\u003e nutritious.  \u003cbr\u003eThe result of these revisions are—no surprise!—boring, inane texts about a cotton-candy world bearing no resemblance to what children can access with the click of a remote control or a computer mouse. Sadly, data show that these efforts to sanitize language do not advance learning or bolster test scores, the very \u003cbr\u003ereason given for banning allegedly insensitive words and topics. \u003cbr\u003eRavitch offers a powerful political and economic analysis of the causes of censorship. She has practical and sensible solutions for ending it, which will improve the quality of books for students as well as liberating publishers, state boards of education, and schools from the grip of pressure groups. \u003cbr\u003ePassionate and polemical,\u003ci\u003e The Language Police\u003c\/i\u003e is a book for every educator, concerned parent, and engaged citizen.  ","brand":"Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47010913812720,"sku":"9780375414824","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780375414824_p0.jpg?v=1763691355","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780375414824","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}