'Oral sex' definition prompts dictionary ban in US schools

[Tech]

America. lolz.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jan/25/oral-sex-dictionary-ban-us-schools?DSF

Dictionaries have been removed from classrooms in southern California schools after a parent complained about a child reading the definition for "oral sex".

Merriam Webster's 10th edition, which has been used for the past few years in fourth and fifth grade classrooms (for children aged nine to 10) in Menifee Union school district, has been pulled from shelves over fears that the "sexually graphic" entry is "just not age appropriate", according to the area's local paper.

The dictionary's online definition of the term is "oral stimulation of the genitals".

 

[Tech]

 

[Big04pimpin]

thats graphic? I would hate for them to get the definition from urban dictionary

 

[BigBen]

LMAO hell why don't they just lock their children up in a basement and expose them to only what they want their kids to see? Some people are so stupid it is unbelievable.

 

[tim290280]

So these would be the same people who let TV raise their kids.

I remember looking up all the "dirty" words in the dictionary in school. It actually took the fun out of a lot of them with such dry definitions.

 

[Skeptic]

Oh noes! Teh dictionary is ruining teh childrenz mindzzzzzz!

 

[Braaq]

This is just retarded beyond belief.

 

[Johnny5]

This picture pretty much sums up the article.

 

[lifterdead]

This. Is.

rEtaRdED.

 

[tim290280]

This. Is.

rEtaRdED.

/fail.

The kids wouldn't know how to spell retarded, wouldn't be using full stops, and definitely not capitalising. Remember, they have had their dictionaries taken.


Has anyone else been reminded of 1984 and Newspeak? Slowly removing the words from our language so that we can no longer express ourselves and have thus become more docile?

 

[cereal]

stupid..
This is some thing

 

[justrelaxin]

This can be done Only in a America

 

[Skeptic]

^ I dunno, the way Australia is following America these days... it honestly wouldn't surprise me to see it happen here.

 

[Zigurd]

I was trying to come up with something clever to say, but I realized the punchline was the news itself.

 

[tim290280]

^ I dunno, the way Australia is following America these days... it honestly wouldn't surprise me to see it happen here.

I'm afraid you are right.

Just take a look at the internet filter they want to introduce. The list of banned websites included a medical centre, a primary school and a charity. Let alone the various "malicious" sites as denoted by some censor committee that can black list something with one complaint.

 

[lifterdead]

The kids wouldn't know how to spell retarded, wouldn't be using full stops, and definitely not capitalising. Remember, they have had their dictionaries taken.

heh.


Education in public schools is much worse than people are willing to admit.

 

[tim290280]

heh.


Education in public schools is much worse than people are willing to admit.

In Australia the Universities association released a paper discussing the state of education in high schools. They were prompted by the appalling standard of literacy of new university entrants.

UNIVERSITY ENTRANTS!!!!

Remember this is from Australia, a country ranked 7th in the world for literacy, 8th for science, and 13th for maths. To put it in context, the USA is ranked 35th for maths, and 29th for science (couldn't find their literacy ranking). The standards we hold are just a little bit too low.

 

[Skeptic]

Was that, that big test they just did comparing public and private schooles etc.. ?

 

[lifterdead]

In Australia the Universities association released a paper discussing the state of education in high schools. They were prompted by the appalling standard of literacy of new university entrants.

UNIVERSITY ENTRANTS!!!!

Remember this is from Australia, a country ranked 7th in the world for literacy, 8th for science, and 13th for maths. To put it in context, the USA is ranked 35th for maths, and 29th for science (couldn't find their literacy ranking). The standards we hold are just a little bit too low.

you might dig this

http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2010/01/how-good-are-uw-students-in-math.html

Last quarter I taught Atmospheric Sciences 101 at the University of Washington, a large lecture class with a mix of students, and gave them a math diagnostic test as I have done in the past. The results were stunning, in a very depressing way. This was an easy test, including elementary and middle school math problems. And these are students attending a science class at the State's flagship university--these should be the creme of the crop of our high school graduates with high GPAs. And yet most of them can't do essential basic math--operations needed for even the most essential problem solving.

Here's a link to a PDF version of the full test and results, and here's a blank version to give your kids and friends.
Consider these embarrassing statistics from the exam:

The overall grade was 58%

43% did not know the formula for the area of a circle
86% could not do a simple algebra problem (problem 4b)
75% could not do a simple scientific notation problem (1e)
52% could not deal with a negative exponent (2 to the -2)
43% could not do a simple long division problem with no remainder (see above)!
47% did not know what a cosine was.

I could go on, but you get the message. If many of our state's best students are mathematically illiterate, as shown by this exam, can you imagine what is happening to the others--those going to community college or no college at all?
What explains this mathematical illiteracy?

 

[tim290280]

Was that, that big test they just did comparing public and private schooles etc.. ?

No. This was the report from university professors who were having a whinge about how bad the literacy standard was of new entrants, such that they were now spending the first half of the first year getting students up to minimum standards.

Those rankings I cited are from the international comparison study they did on education in OECD and affiliated countries. I haven't checked out the site that ranks schools in Australia yet (not a parent, so not really interested) but I know the report that prompted it did show anything regional, anything public in low to middle income areas, was regarded as below average. While anything in affluent areas or anything private was streets ahead for high school standards.