POLITICALLY CORRECT TEXTBOOKS

Last Sunday, I wrote about two new books: "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," by British author J.K. Rowling, and "Living History," by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.). One is more fictional than the other, but I can't seem to remember which is which.

Anyway, I'd like to continue the same theme today by calling your attention to a truly scary new book, "The Language Police," about politically correct textbooks and standardized tests in our nation's public schools.

Written by Diane Ravitch, who has worked on educational policy issues for both Democratic and Republican administrations, the book "makes appallingly plain that the textbooks American schoolchildren read and the tests that measure their academic progress have been corrupted by a bizarre de facto alliance of the far left and the far right," according to veteran Washington Post book reviewer Jonathan Yardley.

"It's difficult to exaggerate the importance of this book," Yardley wrote in the Post's national weekly edition. "No doubt the year will see a few books of greater literary distinction than 'The Language Police,' but it's unlikely to bring forth one of greater importance." That's because Ravitch concludes that ideological extremists agree on one point: "Children's minds are shaped forever by the content and images in their textbooks." So the activists have combined to produce textbooks and standardized tests that offend no one and therefore, omit essential material.

For example, Ravitch reveals that a story about peanuts was eliminated from one test because "the reviewers apparently assumed that a fourth-grade student who was allergic to peanuts might get distracted if he or she encountered a test question that didn't acknowledge the dangers of peanuts." In another example, an inspiring story about a blind mountain climber was rejected because "it was considered biased to acknowledge that lack of sight is a disability."

Thus, Ravitch discovered that "the most important tests at the elementary and high school levels had degenerated into feel-good exercises in boosting self-esteem by 'denying reality.'" It would be pretty scary if any of that PC nonsense was occurring here in Carson City.

"The spineless textbook publishers and testing companies capitulate with not a peep of protest, indeed with a smile, for the paycheck is very large," Yardley wrote. So, you might ask, what's left after the language police and the thought police review our children's textbooks and standardized tests? Ravitch's troubling answer follows:

"Stories that have no geographical location ... Stories in which all conflicts are insignificant. Stories in which men are fearful and women are brave. Stories in which older people are never ill. Stories in which children are obedient, never disrespectful, never get into dangerous situations, never confront problems that cannot be easily solved. Stories in which blind people and people with physical disabilities need no assistance from anyone because their handicaps are not handicaps. Stories in which fantasy and magic (think Harry Potter) are banned. Stories about the past in which historical accuracy is ignored. Stories about science that leave out any reference to evolution or prehistoric times. Stories in which everyone is happy almost all the time. In a word: Fantasyland."

Ravitch asserts that "spineless" publishers of textbooks and standardized tests "give the right-wingers control of topics and content -- nothing about abortion, evolution, divorce, crime -- and the left-wingers control of language, i.e. the weasel words of political correctness .... Both right-wingers and left-wingers demand that publishers shield children from words and ideas that contain what they deem the 'wrong' models for living. Both assume that by limiting what children read, they can change society to reflect their worldview."

Please excuse the lengthy excerpts from Ravitch's book, but we should pay close attention to what our children and grandchildren are learning in our public schools at taxpayer expense. Because if the author is correct in her assertion that the "textbook publishers' thirst for vast amounts of money ... is far greater than their interest in educating schoolchildren," we're in serious trouble. Fortunately, however, "American kids are a lot smarter than American adults give them credit for being .... A child with a rare disease may have to be put in a bubble, but putting the entire American system of elementary and secondary education into one borders on insanity." Amen!

And finally, Yardley noted that Ravitch has high credibility on educational issues because "she has worked for national administrations of both political parties and holds the rare distinction of being a visiting scholar at both the conservative Hoover Institution and the liberal Brookings Institution. She has no political axes to grind and no ideological agenda to pursue." And that's why her book is so important to the rest of us.

PATHETIC! That word best describes the sorry performance of the 2003 Nevada Legislature, which failed to pass a tax and spending plan for the 2003-05 biennium. But we can retaliate next year by voting against the 15 Assembly Republicans who adamantly refused to compromise, including Minority Leader Lynn Hettrick of Gardnerville and the California carpetbagger who represents Carson City in the lower house.

Guy W. Farmer, a semi-retired journalist and former U.S. diplomat, resides in Carson City.