City avoids placing taboo topics on School Exams

[chempop]

Haha, gotcha. I've been a professional dancer/teacher/choreographer for 15 years now and been in some pretty heated debates in my time...

[StoofooEsq]

Quoting for a new page.

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

That's just stupid, particularly regarding the subject of Slavery. Yes, Slavery is monstrous and fucking vile, quite a "touchy subject" -- and it's important to know about, because not only did it actually happen in US history, it continues in some parts of the world today. To avoid mentioning or informing kids of the subject is tantamount to pretending that it doesn't exist at all, and I find the practice of trying to hide the worst things about any history from people way more offensive than just mentioning such things in a textbook or a school exam.

Also, Dinosaurs? What.

[Stormwatch]

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.

Kryptonians, for example.

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

Foreskins and similar structures are a mammal thing. And "jewish dinosaur" is a bit redundant: if you believe that biblical hocus pocus, you automatically are a dinosaur.

[Ed Oscuro]

Dancing with the Dinosaurs

Y'know, it is gonna be hard to have a test on ________ if you can't even name them.

[Friendly]

I was raised a Jehovah's Witness [...]
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".

Of course you have since embraced reality?

[BulletMagnet]

Of course you have since embraced reality?

More along the lines of taking an "I've got more immediate things to worry about" attitude than anything else, to be honest - then again, reality seems to be getting weirder by the minute as it is, heh.

[ancestral-knowledge]

dinousaurs... definately my fav.

fucking dumbass christians...lmao...

[Specineff]

Ridiculous. I don't celebrate Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, but that doesn't mean those who do can't commemorate or talk about them because of me.

Likewise, there is no harm in knowing or celebrating birthdays for some people just because some beliefs or cultures don't.

[undamned]

How about we re-write all our history books to omit anything offensive?

God put dinosaur fossils and bones in the ground to test their faith.

What? Who says this? Wait don't tell me. I will be saddened by those who claim the same faith.
-ud

[Vyxx]

What? Who says this? Wait don't tell me. I will be saddened by those who claim the same faith.
-ud

From an Antievolution site:

Dinosaurs fossils were planted by Satan to throw us on the wrong track, and away from the Lord. "Dinosaurs" never roamed the earth, and they never breathed. They only exist in the fossil state. Do not let Satan lead you away from the unaissailable truth the the Bible, which is God's unfaillible word.

...

The Bible is silent on this issue, but logic dictates they must have been planted at or near the time of the creation of the Earth. I do not think the Lord Almighty would plant the dinosaur fossils AFTER allowing Adam and Eve to settle, for his activities might have been conspicuous. However, since God is omnipotent, it is possible that the fossils were planted later on, sight unseen, and evidence of the planted fossils covered up.

Yeah...

[JBC]

What? Who says this? Wait don't tell me. I will be saddened by those who claim the same faith.
-ud

From an Antievolution site:

Dinosaurs fossils were planted by Satan to throw us on the wrong track, and away from the Lord. "Dinosaurs" never roamed the earth, and they never breathed. They only exist in the fossil state. Do not let Satan lead you away from the unaissailable truth the the Bible, which is God's unfaillible word.

...

The Bible is silent on this issue, but logic dictates they must have been planted at or near the time of the creation of the Earth. I do not think the Lord Almighty would plant the dinosaur fossils AFTER allowing Adam and Eve to settle, for his activities might have been conspicuous. However, since God is omnipotent, it is possible that the fossils were planted later on, sight unseen, and evidence of the planted fossils covered up.

Yeah...

Haha, wouldn't God just snap his fingers and make it so? I doubt he'd have to cover the evidence. Someone underestimates the power of their own god. Someone also needs to read a newer book.

I don't celebrate Hanukkah and Kwanzaa

I do, and every single holiday it's a dick in a box.

[undamned]

From an Antievolution site:

Dinosaurs fossils were planted by Satan to throw us on the wrong track, and away from the Lord. "Dinosaurs" never roamed the earth, and they never breathed. They only exist in the fossil state. Do not let Satan lead you away from the unaissailable truth the the Bible, which is God's unfaillible word.

...

The Bible is silent on this issue, but logic dictates they must have been planted at or near the time of the creation of the Earth. I do not think the Lord Almighty would plant the dinosaur fossils AFTER allowing Adam and Eve to settle, for his activities might have been conspicuous. However, since God is omnipotent, it is possible that the fossils were planted later on, sight unseen, and evidence of the planted fossils covered up.

Daaaaaaang. Every day life is enough to test my faith, let alone covertly planted fossils. It's short in description, but Job describes the "Behemoth" & "Leviathan," which cannot be descriptions of anything living today (or known to us). Pretty cool creatures if you ask me. I've heard people try and downplay those descriptions like, "oh, the behemoth is actually a hippopotamus." Really? Hippos have tails like cedar trees? Go find me some faith testing fossils.
-ud

[Ex-Cyber]

This is not about protecting students' feelings, it's about making the tests better and fairer assessment tools. There is a documented tendency for minority or disadvantaged students to underperform when reminded of that status. Whether or not that's a rational response on the student's part doesn't really matter; from the point of view of the school system, it's a flaw for a test to be skewed in such a way. That doesn't mean these rules are necessarily the right thing, but to paint them as "political correctness gone wild" is utter hackery (which is par for the course with the NY Post, as mentioned upthread).

Also, I've seen reports elsewhere saying that these rules do not ban mentions of topics required by the curriculum, so this isn't "lol, let's whitewash American history by not talking about slavery" or the like (which would probably breach other standards).

[BareKnuckleRoo]

This is not about protecting students' feelings, it's about making the tests better and fairer assessment tools.

"Full list of topics banned"

Dinosaurs and prehistoric times
Evolution
Geological history

Columbia University Teachers College professor Deanna Kuhn said, “If the goal is to assess higher-order thinking skills, controversial topics, for example, ones that are the subject of political debate, are exactly what students should be reasoning about.”

Does not compute.

This is not about protecting students' feelings, it's about appeasing batshit crazy young earth creationists and the like

Fixed.

It should be noted that Universities do not coddle their students; exams can deal with anything including adult subject material, and students are expected to deal and respond to it in a mature manner, especially in a course that deals with tricky ethics like research methods. It's bad enough that they're handling their students with kid gloves to this extent, but there's no denying some of the material on the list is targetted specifically at groups that, simply put, deny science and reason. There's no point in getting an education if you're getting a half-assed one that pussyfoots around how the world actually works and if teachers are barred from discussing subjects like evolution, let alone from saying that "creationism is completely, utterly false".

[Ed Oscuro]

It should be noted that Universities do not coddle their students;

lol

[BulletMagnet]

Seems that a bit of sanity has prevailed, at least for the time being.

[njiska]

Hey, that's good news and I'm glad to here there was parental outrage.