http:\/\/www.silive.com\/news\/index.ssf\/20 … incart_mce<\/a><\/p>\n\t By Staten Island Advance Staten Island Advance
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\tSTATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — You’ve heard of banned books? Get ready for banned words.<\/p>\n
\n\tStaten Island Advance \/ Anthony DePrimoSchools Chancellor Dennis Walcott has a list of 50 words that he doesn’t want included on standardized tests. Among them are "birthday" and "Halloween."<\/p>\n
\tThe city Department of Education is aiming to get 50 words removed from some city-issued standardized tests, and some of them are real head-scratchers.<\/p>\n
\tAmong the off-limits terms: "politics," "poverty," and "religion."<\/p>\n
\tThe reasoning: The words might be distracting to segments of the city’s diverse student population.<\/p>\n
\n\tSchools Chancellor Dennis Walcott described the ban as guidance issued to the developers of standardized tests.<\/p>\n
\tIn a request for proposals for standardized tests the Department of Education said the words are not appropriate for use in statewide tests. <\/p>\n
\n\tThe city is not trying to get the words banned from classroom use.<\/p>\n
\n\t"This is just making sure the test makers are very sensitive in the development of their tests," Walcott told WCBS 880 in an interview.<\/p>\n
\tDo you agree with the ban on certain words on NYC standardized tests?
\n\tNo, this makes no sense to me.<\/p>\n
\tYes, it’s a good idea.<\/p>\n
\tThe station reports that certain words can elicit unpleasant feelings on the part of students. "Dinosaur," for example, would suggest evolution — offensive to creationists. even "birthday" doesn’t make the cut because Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t celebrate them.<\/p>\n
\n\tHere is the complete list of words:<\/p>\n
\t\u2022Abuse (physical, sexual, emotional, or psychological)
\n\t\u2022Alcohol (beer and liquor), tobacco, or drugs
\n\t\u2022Birthday celebrations (and birthdays)
\n\t\u2022Bodily functions
\n\t\u2022Cancer (and other diseases)
\n\t\u2022Catastrophes\/disasters (tsunamis and hurricanes)
\n\t\u2022Celebrities
\n\t\u2022Children dealing with serious issues
\n\t\u2022Cigarettes (and other smoking paraphernalia)
\n\t\u2022Computers in the home (acceptable in a school or library setting)
\n\t\u2022Crime
\n\t\u2022Death and disease
\n\t\u2022Divorce
\n\t\u2022Evolution
\n\t\u2022Expensive gifts, vacations, and prizes
\n\t\u2022Gambling involving money
\n\t\u2022Halloween
\n\t\u2022Homelessness
\n\t\u2022Homes with swimming pools
\n\t\u2022Hunting
\n\t\u2022Junk food
\n\t\u2022In-depth discussions of sports that require prior knowledge
\n\t\u2022Loss of employment
\n\t\u2022Nuclear weapons
\n\t\u2022Occult topics (i.e. fortune-telling)
\n\t\u2022Parapsychology
\n\t\u2022Politics
\n\t\u2022Pornography
\n\t\u2022Poverty
\n\t\u2022Rap Music
\n\t\u2022Religion
\n\t\u2022Religious holidays and festivals (including but not limited to Christmas, Yom Kippur, and Ramadan)
\n\t\u2022Rock-and-Roll music
\n\t\u2022Running away
\n\t\u2022Sex
\n\t\u2022Slavery
\n\t\u2022Terrorism
\n\t\u2022Television and video games (excessive use)
\n\t\u2022Traumatic material (including material that may be particularly upsetting such as animal shelters)
\n\t\u2022Vermin (rats and roaches)
\n\t\u2022Violence
\n\t\u2022War and bloodshed
\n\t\u2022Weapons (guns, knives, etc.)
\n\t\u2022Witchcraft, sorcery, etc.
\n\t—<\/p>\n
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\nReplies:<\/h3>\n\n
Posted by:<\/strong> Skinny on April 2, 2012, 2:41 am<\/p>\nThis would be laughable if it were not so sad. \ud83d\ude25 \ud83d\ude25 \ud83d\ude25 \ud83d\udc7f<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Posted by:<\/strong> Stickman on April 3, 2012, 4:06 pm<\/p>\nTotally asinine but also totally believable. Sad, really.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You will not believethe fifty words that have been banned in NYC School tests There are shooting on school grounds, drugs and gangs are rampant, teachers are having sex with students and tens of thousands are spend each year on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world-we-live-in"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}