The NYC school systems issued a memo to the makers of standardized tests for students in which they urge the banning of some 50 words deemed potentially offensive/distracting to students.
Words and phrases can be both intense and meaningless depending on usage, and surely one could find an enormous amount of variance if the public at large were asked to define the word "education" or to assess the quality of 'standardized testing".
The list:
- Abuse (physical, sexual, emotional, or psychological)
- Alcohol (beer and liquor), tobacco, or drugs
- Birthday celebrations (and birthdays)
- Bodily functions
- Cancer (and other diseases)
- Catastrophes/disasters (tsunamis and hurricanes)
- Celebrities
- Children dealing with serious issues
- Cigarettes (and other smoking paraphernalia)
- Computers in the home (acceptable in a school or library setting)
- Crime
- Death and disease
- Divorce
- Evolution
- Expensive gifts, vacations, and prizes
- Gambling involving money
- Halloween
- Homelessness
- Homes with swimming pools
- Hunting
- Junk food
- In-depth discussions of sports that require prior knowledge
- Loss of employment
- Nuclear weapons
- Occult topics (i.e. fortune-telling)
- Parapsychology
- Politics
- Pornography
- Poverty
- Rap Music
- Religion
- Religious holidays and festivals (including but not limited to Christmas, Yom Kippur, and Ramadan)
- Rock-and-Roll music
- Running away
- Sex
- Slavery
- Terrorism
- Television and video games (excessive use)
- Traumatic material (including material that may be particularly upsetting such as animal shelters)
- Vermin (rats and roaches)
- Violence
- War and bloodshed
- Weapons (guns, knives, etc.)
- Witchcraft, sorcery, etc.
Fun Assignment: make a 'test question' using as many of the words on this list as you can!! Share it in the comments section!!
UPDATE: Phantom has the winning entry in the comments below:
UPDATE: Phantom has the winning entry in the comments below:
"If a train loaded with weapons, pornography, and a group of Wiccans
celebrating Halloween by drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes is
going east at 50 mph, and it passes another train loaded with vermin,
junk food, and nuclear weapons going west at 65 mph, how many homes with
swimming pools will the trains pass before the Jewish engineer and the
Baptist brakeman on the first train turn on some rap music and have sex
while talking dirty about evolution, and the former NFL Hall of Fame
lineman on the second train starts telling fortunes and predicting which
passengers on the train are going to die in a natural disaster?
Please show your work."
Please show your work."
The only thing dumber than having a list like this is paying someone to create it. I think this is a silly waste of time.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great April Fool's Joke. Ummmm........ this is an April Fool gag, right? I mean, seriously? Seriously?
ReplyDeleteIf a train loaded with weapons, pornography, and a group of Wiccans celebrating Halloween by drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes is going east at 50 mph, and it passes another train loaded with vermin, junk food, and nuclear weapons going west at 65 mph, how many homes with swimming pools will the trains pass before the Jewish engineer and the Baptist brakeman on the first train turn on some rap music and have sex while talking dirty about evolution, and the former NFL Hall of Fame lineman on the second train starts telling fortunes and predicting which passengers on the train are going to die in a natural disaster?
ReplyDeletePlease show your work.
Quadruple-A-plus-plus, Phantom!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks. Where's my gold star?
ReplyDeleteafraid those have been banned.
ReplyDelete