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by Diane Ravitch, PhD, 225 pp, $14 (paperback), ISBN 1-4000-3064-1, New York, NY, Vintage, 2004.

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2005;159:301.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

One of the most engaging features of Diane Ravitch’s infuriating book, The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn, is the appendix, where Ravitch, a New York University historian of education, lists words and topics that de facto censors, both left-wing and right-wing, have effectively removed from textbooks and tests used in public schools.

Snowmen should become snowpersons but should probably not be mentioned at all, as children from warm climates who have never made snowmen are at a disadvantage in tests that mention them.

"The Middle East" is an ethnocentric term, based on the supposed supremacy of the West, and should be substituted with "southwest Asia."

And antibias guidelines used in New York State advise against using "any language, content or context that favors one racial or ethnic group over another." So much for half of history.

Throughout the book, Ravitch shows how the desire to . . . [Full Text of this Article]

AUTHOR INFORMATION

Tina Kelley, BA, Reviewer