January 28, 2010

Repressive educators smarter than you think, devise way so kids can't look up "censorship"

by

After a complaint from a parent over the way the Merriam Webster dictionary defined “oral sex,” the Menifee Union School District in Southern California has pulled the book from its classrooms and libraries. According to a report from the local newspaper, the Press-Enterprise, which does not go so far as to quote the definition in question, “School officials will review the dictionary to decide if it should be permanently banned because of the ‘sexually graphic’ entry, said district spokeswoman Betti Cadmus.”

Some parents and school board members were upset about the decision, however.

Parent Emanuel Chavez complains, “Censorship in the schools, really? Pretty soon the only dictionary in the school library will be the Bert and Ernie dictionary. If the kids are exposed to it, it’s up to the parents to explain it to them at their level.”

The District leadership remains undaunted, however, and is checking out the rest of the dictionary before making any further decisions. Says spokesperson Cadmus, “It’s hard to sit and read the dictionary, but we’ll be looking to find other things of a graphic nature.”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.

  • wc

    i think the action by the school was short sighted and reactionary.. parents can be way too paranoid. but i’m a single 20something male, so. will we all become protective prudes once we have kids?

    …

    this reminds me of the incident last year with Ninjawords being “censored” by iTunes because of the presence of profanity and “urbandictionary” slang.

    http://daringfireball.net/2009/08/phil_schiller_app_store

    it had more to do with timing and the 17+ app store in iTunes, but it sure presented the idea of censorship.

    and you know they’ll be faced with more of it, with the iPad.

  • wc

    i think the action by the school was short sighted and reactionary.. parents can be way too paranoid. but i’m a single 20something male, so. will we all become protective prudes once we have kids?

    …

    this reminds me of the incident last year with Ninjawords being “censored” by iTunes because of the presence of profanity and “urbandictionary” slang.

    http://daringfireball.net/2009/08/phil_schiller_app_store

    it had more to do with timing and the 17+ app store in iTunes, but it sure presented the idea of censorship.

    and you know they’ll be faced with more of it, with the iPad.

  • wc

    hah. remove the “safe” dictionary and open the door for all the other search results when the kids turn to google. smart.

    it’s like when cities outlawed graffiti that was centralized, which resulted in vandals instead spreading to all other parts of the city.

    at least they’d have some trust with Websters’ dictionary and its defitions. they can’t possibly curate and blackout the entire net.

    kids are way too resourceful now and they’ll see right through the filters.

  • wc

    hah. remove the “safe” dictionary and open the door for all the other search results when the kids turn to google. smart.

    it’s like when cities outlawed graffiti that was centralized, which resulted in vandals instead spreading to all other parts of the city.

    at least they’d have some trust with Websters’ dictionary and its defitions. they can’t possibly curate and blackout the entire net.

    kids are way too resourceful now and they’ll see right through the filters.

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