Dear California School District,
Seriously?
Sincerely,
Common Sense
So if you havent heard, a California School Disrict just added one more to the banned book list. And it is the ever so haunting...ever so shameful...ever so shocking....Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (gasp!) www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,584010,00.html
So supposedly some 4th grader got "lost" looking up a word between "oralism" and "orang" and found a shocking entry of the term "oral sex." Here's my first question. What word was this fourth grader exactly looking for? Let's not be stupid here....children know more than what we give them credit for and dont always seem like the innocent they may portray. Maybe mom and dad should sit junior down for a talk instead of running to the school board claiming "Bad form." (Yes, I just quoted "Hook." Dustin Hoffman would understand.)
Do I think it is unfortunate that this came up in a 4th grade classroom? Yep. Would I want my kid discovering the words "oral sex" at a 4th grade age....Nope!!! Do I think it's right to start slinging around the words "banned book list" when it comes to the dictionary? Ridiculous. Get a grip California. It's a dictionary and the job of a dictionary is to define words in the English language.
Here's an idea....how about...oh I don't know...put materials in your classrooms that are deemed age appropriate in the first place? If I told a kid to look up a word and plopped down the mammoth sized portion of Merriam Webster down on a kid's desk, I would expect to have tears, whining, or a cry for help in a matter of a minute.
Let's look at the word "collegiate" for a moment, shall we? Seeing how these 4th grade students are looking at a Collegiate dictionary, maybe we should open up Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and look up the word itself.
What say you, Merriam Webster?
Collegiate col-le-giate
Function: adjective
Definition:
Designed for or characteristic of COLLEGE students.
Soooo .....California School District....you are appalled at the entry of an "age-innapropriate" word for 4th graders....in a COLLEGIATE dictionary....hmmmmmmm. Anyone else see the irony of the word "innapropriate"?
So to wrap up:
Collegiate dictionaries being used for 4th grade students: bad
Age appropriate Children's dictionaries used for 4th grade students: good
Banning the dictionary in schools: bad
Taking a big breath before you utter the words "banned book": good
Dustin Hoffman in the role of Tootsie: bad
Dustin Hoffman in the role of James Hook: good.
