Ravitch is the author of the new book, The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn. In her book she chronicles the efforts of school boards and bias and sensitivity committees to edit and shape the textbooks that end up in classrooms. Some examples of this include: omitting the mention of Jews in an Isaac Bashevis Singer story about prewar Poland, changing the expression "My God!" to "You don't mean it," and recommending that children not be shown as disobedient or in conflict with adults. Ravitch writes that the process has evolved into a practice that excises "words, images, passages and ideas that no reasonable person would consider biased in the usual meaning of that term."
Copyright 2003 Fresh Air
