Posted 3:02 PM by Gene

Judging from the two-page excerpt in the March Atlantic Monthly (not online), when Diane Ravitch's book The Language Police hits the bookstores the waste matter will surely hit the aerator. It's a simple list of words and "stereotyped images" banned by textbook publishers. "Adam and Eve" is replaced with "Eve and Adam" ("to demonstrate that males do not take priority over females"), "huts" is out as "ethnocentric"; "polo", "regatta" and "yacht" as "elitist"; "Chief Sitting Bull" is verboten, say "Tatanka Iyotake" instead; a "heroine" must be called a "hero" regardless of his/her/its sex; even "senior citizen" (itself a euphemism) is a no-no for "demeaning older persons." And of course we must avoid describing "African-Americans in crowded tenements on chaotic streets; in big bright cars; in abandoned buildings with broken windows and wash hanging out; or living in innocuous, dull white-picket-fence neighborhoods." I could go on. I mustn't; I'll get sick. As preposterous and offensive as the list is Prof. Ravitch's book will no doubt preach only to the converted, in the usual Rush-Hour sanctuary, which would be dreadful because we're all hurt by dishonesty of speech and thought -- the kind of dishonesty only big media and big education can promote.

An irony: Two of the biggest educational book publishers are McGraw-Hill, owner of the S&P indexes and Business Week; and Pearson, half-owner of The Economist, the self-styled "iconoclastic" (and very conventionally wise) news rag (and once the owner of the TV production company that churned out the very politically correct The Price is Right and Baywatch). We should not be surprised.