Dictionary banned from school classroom [View All]

An American school has banned a dictionary from classrooms. Now the Menifee Union School District is forming a committee to decide if the dictionaries should be allowed back, or permanently banned. Sounds crazy? Read on...

The dictionary - the much-respected Merriam-Webster's Collegiate version - was pulled from classrooms after a parent at Oak Meadows Elementary School complained. This was because a child had found the definition of "oral sex" in the book (I'd guess it's there along with a lot of other "bad" words).

The decision was made without consultation with the local school board, and parent reaction has been mixed, with some parents in favour, saying that the books shouldn't be in use for young children (aged 9/10).

The books, which cost $24 each were, according to the Press Enterprise, bought to allow advanced readers to "look up words that they didn't know." However, spokesperson for the school district, Betti Cadmus, added that a committee would be looking into the issue and that it would "determine the extent to which the challenged material supports curriculum, the educational appropriateness of the material and its suitability to the age level of the students."

http://timesonline.typepad.com/schoolgate/2010/01/dictionary-banned-from-school-classroom.html