Schoolboeken censuur

In her new book, “The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn,” Ravitch explores the evolution of the system of government sensitivity committees, which originally were established to help eliminate stereotypes and biases in school materials regarding gender, race and occupations. She concludes that the publishers of textbooks and standardized tests now self-censor books and other materials in an effort to avoid the high costs of making last-minute changes to please state education officials and special interests.

She said that states — such as California and Texas — that purchase education materials en masse for their public schools rely on anti-bias and sensitivity guidelines to oversee their decisions, including lists of taboo words, subjects and concepts. Ravitch said that many companies that produce these textbooks and standardized tests have adopted similar guidelines in an effort to avoid producing material that state education authorities will not buy.

“The one way to get a textbook killed is to become controversial,” she said.

Ravitch said she has seen passages selected for inclusion in the NAEP tests ultimately rejected by the board’s bias and sensitivity committee for troubling reasons. For example, a reading passage about George Washington Carver was rejected because a tale about the inventor of peanut butter was deemed insensitive to children allergic to peanuts. Another scientific passage concerning owls was rejected because birds are taboo to some Native American tribes. A National Assessment Governing Board official did not return calls for comment on this story.