City avoids placing taboo topics on School Exams

[njiska]

PC student tests forbid dance, dinos & lots more
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/out_ ... 0CQsccdZuL

Taboo subjects include:

- Dinosaurs
- Birthdays
- Halloween
- Dancing
- items that are potentially “disrespectful to authority or authority figures,”
- give human characteristics to animals or inanimate objects.
- Divorce
- Disease
- Terrorism
- Slavery

What the fuck? These run the gauntlet from absurd to controversial, but needed. This is oversensitivity to a whole new level. They did note that this is not an absolute ban as items could be included on a case by case basis.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Im shit at Maths and English, so im gonna form a cult to get them struck off exam papers

[burgerkingdiamond]

just further proof of the decline of western civilization. Everybody besides me is a fucking idiot

[Moniker]

I can't say that I understand an individual "being offended" by the content of a test, and actually doing more poorly as result. I understand that all anyone wants to do is cover their own ass, but jesus...

On the other hand, I don't think these particular topics are vital to aptitude determination. Yeah, it's bullshit, but for the purposes of exams, it doesn't really matter all that much.

[moh]

and how exactly is this going to be reinforced?

I've had profs put sexually explicit material on exams before... nobody reads over these tests beforehand or anything (in university at least...)

this blows my mind on so many levels =\

[Randorama]

As Linus Van Pelt said, "never talk with people about religion, Dinosaurs, the great cucumber and Birthdays".

...Birthdays? I get Dinosaurs for the ID guys, but birthdays?

[CMoon]

Jesus christ.

[Ed Oscuro]

I'm just as shocked (or pretty close) by all the weird, offputting ads The Post is running.

If anything I think the bigger practical issue is the bias that creeps into some teacher and even college professor remarks, which is actively shaping some students' understandings, and often stifling their original thought. Avoiding an issue entirely might not be great for the students, but if they get the fundamentals of an education regardless they should be prepared to deal with those "upsetting" issues like an adult. On the other hand, there are professors freely inserting comments on subjects they know nothing about, from Marxists talking about the economy (in the old days; I've never seen this in person or even heard of it) to Christian-aligned bigotry and climate science skepticism, to name a few hot issues.

The ban on dinosaurs reveals that what I'm concerned about is directly feeding into this "PC debate;" it's clearly being hijacked in part by fundies, just as it was recently hijacked by race history deniers in Arizona. I recall there was another case earlier this year that hit the news when a Tea Party couple unilaterally got a school official to ban a couple books from an elective literature course.

I would say that it's important for teachers not to go off on a rail and talk about stuff that they really shouldn't talk about. Maybe not Halloween and dinosaurs, certainly, but I think this "political correctness" angle distracts from the real problem with schools, which is that many students are not getting an education, including basic writing and logical skills (and I have to admit that math was not my strong point).

This is, and I know I have said this before, a really odd thing to get worked up about - but of all days it's especially true today, with the Supreme Court hearings on the Affordable Care Act, Trayvon Martin's case grinding on, and recent revelations about the National Organization for Marriage cynically trying to use gay marriage as a political tool to split the Democratic party by driving a wedge between gays and blacks in the party.

[JBC]

Really? Dinosaurs?

We found their fucking bones in the ground everywhere. What's to debate except whether they had feathers or not?

[Vyxx]

Really? Dinosaurs?

We found their fucking bones in the ground everywhere. What's to debate except whether they had feathers or not?

I'm guessing those YEC's who believe the Earth is only 6000 years old and believe God put dinosaur fossils and bones in the ground to test their faith.

[BulletMagnet]

birthdays aren’t celebrated by Jehovah’s Witnesses; and Halloween suggests paganism.

I was raised a Jehovah's Witness and thus never participated in this sort of thing as a kid, but never did my folks, nor (to my knowledge) the organization's leaders, ever make a stink about simply encountering them passively: heck, the Witnesses don't buy evolution either, but when science class started to cover it I was simply told "learn what it entails and pass the tests; you already know what you believe". I can't speak for any of the other topics or the groups that they're purported to affect, but I call BS on this one.

Then again, seeing as this is the New York Post, something tells me that something's being left out here to make it sound as ridiculous and ohmygodthecommunistsarecoming as possible.

[Randorama]

Lengthy argument on why people should STFU

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen.
Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

Proposition 7 of the Tractatus (by Ludwig Wittgenstein, of course).

Also, all of these forbidden topics for exams look like NY is in a collective butt-hurt condition. Somebody needs to lock the place and turn it into a giant prison, dammit.

[xbl0x180]

Jesus f****** christ.

[Ed Oscuro]

Lengthy argument on why people should STFU

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen.
Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

Proposition 7 of the Tractatus (by Ludwig Wittgenstein, of course).

I'm in good company, then!

Also, all of these forbidden topics for exams look like NY is in a collective butt-hurt condition.

New York is prickly? Why I never. To take it full-circle, njiska wants to make political correctness a forbidden topic, right?

Xzibit circularity approaching fast!

Ok, why not: "Yo Dawg, I herd you don't like political correctness, so we banned it so you can complain about the banning while you complain about political correctness"

[Specineff]

birthdays aren’t celebrated by Jehovah’s Witnesses; and Halloween suggests paganism.

I was raised a Jehovah's Witness and thus never participated in this sort of thing as a kid, but never did my folks, nor (to my knowledge) the organization's leaders, ever make a stink about simply encountering them passively: heck, the Witnesses don't buy evolution either, but when science class started to cover it I was simply told "learn what it entails and pass the tests; you already know what you believe". I can't speak for any of the other topics or the groups that they're purported to affect, but I call BS on this one..

QFT.

[njiska]

To take it full-circle, njiska wants to make political correctness a forbidden topic, right?

Oh hell no. While I don't generally support political correctness, aside from not outright being a dick, there is never anything wrong with having a discussion.

[Ed Oscuro]

I know that's not your position; I was just having some fun. Given how much attention you give PC topics, it did seem pretty safe to assume that your life would be much better without worrying about PC.

[njiska]

I know that's not your position; I was just having some fun. Given how much attention you give PC topics, it did seem pretty safe to assume that your life would be much better without worrying about PC.

Nah. Then I'd have nothing to bitch about

[Dale]

I fell out with two of my best over a dancing theory debate.

[chempop]

Haha Dancing!! I teach dance at schools and I remember once there was this poor kid who had to leave the room "because of his religion"...

...he was looking through the small window on the door as everyone was having a great time <<INSERT SAD TROMBONE>>

[chempop]

I fell out with two of my best over a dancing theory debate.

Whoa, care to elaborate? Please...

[Drum]

Explain the birthdays one pls. I get how religious nuts would screech about the others, but not that one.

[JBC]

Really? Dinosaurs?

We found their fucking bones in the ground everywhere. What's to debate except whether they had feathers or not?

I'm guessing those YEC's who believe the Earth is only 6000 years old and believe God put dinosaur fossils and bones in the ground to test their faith.

It turns out that's around half of America. Pretty depressing to think about.

Dear God, please help the information age make us not as stupid.

[chempop]

Explain the birthdays one pls. I get how religious nuts would screech about the others, but not that one.

Many cultures don't celebrate birthdays.

[Jeneki]

Question #1) If Johnny the dinosaur has his birthday the week after Halloween, and at the party his divorced wife's slave dances the tango while a disease outbreak caused by terrorists ravages the countryside, what is the square root of pi?

[Moniker]

Question #1) If Johnny the dinosaur has his birthday the week after Halloween, and at the party his divorced wife's slave dances the tango while a disease outbreak caused by terrorists ravages the countryside, what is the square root of pi?

Trick question. Pi is an ingenious fabrication of the Texas Instruments Corporation to sell more calculators.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Question #2 If a Jewish Dinosaur's foreskin is 3.0 inch and 4/5ths of it is cut off, how much is remaining?

[system11]

Depressing, on many levels. The only ones I agree with are divorce (only because many children in troubled families may have their test performance compromised by an ugly reminder), and terrorism because the ~3k or so New Yorkers who died on 9/11 probably had children between them.

The rest though? As an educational establishment it should be the DUTY of a school to challenge sky pixie brainwashing.

[njiska]

Depressing, on many levels. The only ones I agree with are divorce (only because many children in troubled families may have their test performance compromised by an ugly reminder), and terrorism because the ~3k or so New Yorkers who died on 9/11 probably had children between them.

Suck it up buttercup? I don't mean to be rude, but kids have to learn to deal with these facts sooner or later and hiding them only turns the child into a less well adjusted adult. We cannot keep coddling everyone or no one in society will be able to cope with the realities of life. My parents divorced when I was just entering grade 7 and it was pretty messy and emotionally traumatic. I still have some scars from that event that weigh on my conscience. Yet I can't say that a question of divorce on a test would have bothered me. Even if it did, that was my problem to deal with, not the school board's. If the kid is that sensitive to the subject, then they're going to have enough going on to have problems focusing regardless.

[Dale]

I fell out with two of my best over a dancing theory debate.

Whoa, care to elaborate? Please...

I was joking, It would be pretty funny though.