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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- You've heard of banned books? Get ready for banned words.
View full sizeStaten 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."
The 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.
Among the off-limits terms: "politics," "poverty," and "religion."
The reasoning: The words might be distracting to segments of the city's diverse student population.
Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott described the ban as guidance issued to the developers of standardized tests.
In a request for proposals for standardized tests the Department of Education said the words are not appropriate for use in statewide tests.
The city is not trying to get the words banned from classroom use.
"This is just making sure the test makers are very sensitive in the development of their tests,"
in an interview.
The 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.
Here is the complete list of words:
- Abuse (physical, sexual, emotional, or psychological)
- Alcohol (beer and liquor), tobacco, or drugs
- Birthday celebrations (and birthdays)
- Bodily functions
- Cancer (and other diseases)
- Catastrophes/disasters (tsunamis and hurricanes)
- Celebrities
- Children dealing with serious issues
- Cigarettes (and other smoking paraphernalia)
- Computers in the home (acceptable in a school or library setting)
- Crime
- Death and disease
- Divorce
- Evolution
- Expensive gifts, vacations, and prizes
- Gambling involving money
- Halloween
- Homelessness
- Homes with swimming pools
- Hunting
- Junk food
- In-depth discussions of sports that require prior knowledge
- Loss of employment
- Nuclear weapons
- Occult topics (i.e. fortune-telling)
- Parapsychology
- Politics
- p*rnography
- Poverty
- Rap Music
- Religion
- Religious holidays and festivals (including but not limited to Christmas, Yom Kippur, and Ramadan)
- Rock-and-Roll music
- Running away
- Sex
- Slavery
- Terrorism
- Television and video games (excessive use)
- Traumatic material (including material that may be particularly upsetting such as animal shelters)
- Vermin (rats and roaches)
- Violence
- War and bloodshed
- Weapons (guns, knives, etc.)
- Witchcraft, sorcery, etc.
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