New York Test Sanitizes Literature

New York Test Sanitizes Literature

NewsMax Wires
Monday, June 3, 2002

NEW YORK -- Writers and publishers are set to formally protest a newly discovered policy of the New York State Regents tests required of high schoolers, the doctoring of literature to exclude virtually any reference to race, religion, ethnicity, sex, nudity, alcohol and profanity, the New York Times reported Sunday.

An excerpt from the works of Isaac Bashevis Singer has all mention of Judaism eliminated. Chekhov has a reference to nudity cut. A passage from an Annie Dillard memoir lacks her reference to race.

A passage from a speech by U.N. Director General Kofi Annan has references to the United States dues in arrears eliminated, as well as a mention of wine.

A boy described as "skinny" becomes "thin," and other reference to "fat" became "heavy."

The woman who discovered all the deletions, Jeanne Heifetz, said, "I really thought they had lost their minds," the Times said.

The next batch of tests will be administered June 18 and 19.

Monday the policy will be protested in a news conference to be held by the Association of American Publishers, the writers' group PEN, the National Coalition Against Censorship and the New York Civil Liberties Union.

'Sensitivity Review'

The State Education Department that prepares the exams told the Times the excerpts are modified to satisfy elaborate "sensitivity review guidelines."

Of 30 passages written by famous authors, 19 were found to have significant changes, with only one containing any sign that something had been changed.

The Education Department's Assistant Commissioner for Curriculum Roseanne DeFabio said the changes are made so no student "will be uncomfortable in a testing situation.

"Even the most wonderful writers don't write literature for children to take on a test," she told the Times.

However, she said, from now on the department will use ellipses to show something has been deleted but that the department still does not believe it is necessary to ask authors' permission to change their texts.

Cathy Popkin, the Lionel Trilling professor in the humanities at Columbia University, wrote the state officials that the practice is "dishonest. It is dangerous. It is an embarrassment. It is the practice of fools."

A product that might interest you:
Pat Buchanan`s "The Death of the West" reveals attacks on America
"Coloring the News: How Crusading for Diversity Has Corrupted American Journalism"
"The New Thought Police: Inside the Left`s Assault on Free Speech and Free Minds"