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Hello, It has just become known that the New York State Dept. of Education has been routinely "editing" literature passages that are used for regents exams. This was done using their "sensitivity review guidelines" so that no student would feel "uncomfortable in a testing situation" according to Roseanne DeFabio, an assistant commissioner for curriculum, instruction and assessment. Talk about euphemisms. Talk about double think. Talk about inflated bureaucratic titles. This practice has come to light due to the suspicions aroused by Jeanne Heifetz, a Brooklyn mother of a high school senior who noticed something amiss in some of the passages she perused on an exam. She looked at 30 selections from 10 exams going back three years and noticed a number of deletions and changed references referring to race, religion, ethnicity, sex, nudity and profanity. Two examples given were changing "hell" to "heck" and eliminating Kofi Annan's references to the US owing money to the United Nations. This practice is being challenged by several groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association Against Censorship along with a variety of individuals. The article had an Associated Press byline and appeared in the Binghamton, NY and Ithaca, NY, papers on Monday, June 3rd. Personally, I'm appalled that New York State would do this without contacting the writers of these passages or informing the students and instructors who had every reason to believe that these selections were true to the author's intent. I'm curious to know how the rest of you feel about this issue and I wonder if other states have been doing something similar and just haven't been "caught". Ed Nizalowski, SMS Newark Valley High School Newark Valley, NY enizalowski@nvcs.stier.org =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-= All postings to LM_NET are protected under copyright law. To quit LM_NET (or set-reset NOMAIL or DIGEST, etc.) send email to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL or 3) SET LM_NET DIGEST 4) SET LM_NET MAIL * Please allow for confirmation from Listserv. For LM_NET Help see: http://ericir.syr.edu/lm_net/ Archives: http://askeric.org/Virtual/Listserv_Archives/LM_NET.shtml See also EL-Announce for announcements from library media vendors: http://www.mindspring.com/~el-announce/ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=