California Schools Ban The Dictionary

By on January 29, 2010 in News 8

websterThe Guardian reports that schools in Southern California have removed the dictionary from classrooms because it contains dirty words. No, really. I think this is how civilizations collapse:

Dictionaries have been removed from classrooms…after a parent complained about a child reading the definition for “oral sex.”

Merriam Webster’s 10th edition, which has been used for the past few years in fourth and fifth grade classrooms (for children aged nine to 10) in Menifee Union school district, has been pulled from shelves over fears that the “sexually graphic” entry is “just not age appropriate.”

The dictionary’s online definition of the term is “oral stimulation of the genitals”. “It’s hard to sit and read the dictionary, but we’ll be looking to find other things of a graphic nature,” district spokeswoman Betti Cadmus told the paper.

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  • Truth Seeker

    This is a real problem with America today. Lack of education on this subject matter leads to ignorant performing of the acts they want to learn about.

    What would you rather YOUR 10 year old girl learn from? A dictionary that makes them go “Eeeew, gross!” or from a persuasive 12 year old boy who says, “Come back here behind the shed and I”ll show you!”

    Parents need to TALK to thier children and instill good values and information on these subjects instead of hiding it from them, otherwise they are either going to learn myth filled half truths on the playground and end up with an STD's and early teen parentohood.

  • Nita

    I remember I was 10 the first time Sex was explained to us…and I'm perfectly normal and don't have issues againt that…I think it's way better to keep kids informed about it, and with an open mind so they will be able to ASK!!! instead of trying to find out by themselves…
    That's just stupid…

  • 5by5

    What, have California School Boards started to take their cues from the idiots in Texas?

    As if the mere definition of sex somehow teaches you anything substantial about it? For heaven's sake even REGULAR sex education barely taught you anything that helpful about human sexuality back in the day.

    Boy Dan Savage was right. To claim that teaching kids only about the mechanics of sex will somehow instruct them how to manage their desires, is about as rational as claiming that learning about the mechanics of the combustion engine teaches them how to drive safely.

    Now with this abstinence foolishness, we don't even teach them the mechanics of their own bodies. And people wonder why the red states like Texas all lead the nation in teen pregnancy and the spread of STD's?

  • honu

    Well if this isn't one of the single most retarded things I've read recently. Sure, remove dictionaries because students couldn't possibly access the internet in backwards hinterlands southern California. Not to mention the swear words being spoken every single day on television or in the streets. Do the superintendents think that they're protecting children from the bad bad words meanwhile they're dodging bullets in their neighborhoods? Sheezus.

  • Borgar

    Goddamnit America, why do you have to be so full of bloody kooks? Insanity is contagious and it's spreading.

  • GoodDoktorBad

    Thats right, leave all those kids to figure it out for themselves. Maybe a few won't end up as maladjusted freaks like there parents, teachers and priests.
    Maybe thats why people use the word “junk” to describe there sexual parts these days. So many people are stuck in gradeschool when it comes to any talk about sexuality.
    Thanks to this shame based fear pandering, we are about as emotionally and sexually mature as the children we once were.

  • Anonymous

    Oh my God, are you kidding me?
    That was a pivotal point of the elementary education for me and my classmates was looking up all sorts of different words in the dictionary. Vulgar, confusing, or just adult sounding things, the dictionary provided us all a great education that couldn’t justifiably be given by our public school teachers.
    You can’t raise your kid in a vacuum, there’ll be a volatile reaction just waiting to happen.

  • gotnostringsonme

    Oh my God, are you kidding me?
    That was a pivotal point of the elementary education for me and my classmates was looking up all sorts of different words in the dictionary. Vulgar, confusing, or just adult sounding things, the dictionary provided us all a great education that couldn't justifiably be given by our public school teachers.
    You can't raise your kid in a vacuum, there'll be a volatile reaction just waiting to happen.