Southern CA school district bans Merriam Webster's dictionary

Due to a parent's complaint the Merriam Webster's Dictionary has been banned from the Menifee Union School District in Southern California. The district has some The 9,000-students.

The reason for the ban - the dictionary contains a definition of "oral sex".

Menifee school officials remove dictionary over term 'oral sex'

After a parent complained about an elementary school student stumbling across "oral sex" in a classroom dictionary, Menifee Union School District officials decided to pull Merriam Webster's 10th edition from all school shelves earlier this week.

School officials will review the dictionary to decide if it should be permanently banned because of the "sexually graphic" entry, said district spokeswoman Betti Cadmus. The dictionaries were initially purchased a few years ago for fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms districtwide, according to a memo to the superintendent.

There is a minor update to this story now that I've gotten around to posting about it.

Menifee school panel will review banned dictionary

The Menifee Union School District is forming a committee to review whether dictionaries containing the definitions for sexual terms should be permanently banned from the district's classrooms, a district official said Friday.

Its it just me - or is this just nutty?

**** Reminder ****

Please choose your words wisely. No Profanity or slang words allowed.

Thanks,

reply to post by Frogs


Its elementary aged kids, Not High School there is A BIG Difference. Stuff like that shouldnt even be mentioned in Elementary school.

Originally posted by elevatedone
**** Reminder ****

Please choose your words wisely. No Profanity or slang words allowed.

Thanks,

Apparently the school in southern CA has the same rules regarding language. The post in reference has been blanked out so I didn't get to see it, but from what I can infer I believe the point has effectively been made.

Me, I could care less about such language. And in some cases I believe it can make English dialog more colorful, either indicating the character of the speaker or providing more emphasis upon what is said. But depending on the foibles of society or some social subset, apparently it's allowable to deprive (or protect, depending on who's view) people from exposure to it.

Hopefully the bombs start falling soon, because our country is finished.

Puritanical BS aside, its a freaking dictionary. Some people are wound way too tight to be among the living.

When I was in forth grade, we had dictionaries -- and we didn't 'stumble' upon anything. If we were looking up immature topics, we were doing it for fun - and we already had a good idea what the definition would be.

Protect the children! Keep them away from information! Save them from the dictionary!

Banning is just as good as burning. Let's all regress to the stone age and only read books written on papyrus by people claiming to hear the word of an angry, invisible old dude.[/sarcasm]

*sigh*

Sometimes, I really wonder why we bother to send our kids to school anymore...

It seems to be getting harder and harder to find a good one and I'm in the Education field.



ed: sp errors pre-coffee, bad sign


[edit on 26-1-2010 by LadySkadi]

Imagine what the kid would have found if he'd used google instead of the dictionary.

You people are goofy, These KIDS are 6-12, ELEMENTARY is not the place to learn about sex. Now if this happened in a Middle School or High School it would be different they need to learn about sex, and contrceptives... Not in Freaking elementary school.... I bet half of you who have commented dont have kids that age.

Oh no. A dictionary gave a definition of something. The horror.

If your child asks about it and is younger you give a brief but correct answer, and leave it at that. It isn't rocket science.

Children not knowing anything about sex and sexual organs is how you prime them to be abused. They don't have any language or words to tell you about soemthing, and you make the subject unapproachable.

And I assure you, I do have children in this age group.

fools.

[edit on 2010/1/26 by Aeons]

[edit on 2010/1/26 by Aeons]

They are better off without Mirriam-Websters Dictionary, although their criteria for banning it means that the children in this SoCal school district won't be getting the benefit from the vastly superior Oxford Unabridged Dictionary either, as it contains similar and equally as "offensive" entries (the Oxford Unabridged definition for the "F" word was one of my personal favs in Junior High).

This backwards thinking will result in nothing more than making an entire generation barely literate at a time where it is more crucial than ever that we focus on a more comprehensive and advanced educational regimen so that our Nation might continue to compete in a Global Market. The ignorance of parents has already caused the United States to lapse into the 18th of 36 Industrialized Nations (we rank 38th overall if you count all Nations). The average Reading Level for High School graduates in the United States is at the 4th Grade Reading Level! Banning books, let alone banning dictionaries is not going to improve this situation, but acerbate it.

Talk about small-mindedness shooting oneself in the foot!

Keep the Children away from dictionaries, they don't need stinky dictionaries, all they need is the Bible, they Bible will send them freeEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Actually I believe is not until 4 grade that the introduction to how to use the dictionaries is given in the classroom, parents are encouraged to buy small dictionaries for the children.

Humm I never knew that the definition of "oral sex" was even in the Merriam Webster's, but then again I wasn't looking for that particular entry either.

It seems some parents have nothing better to do but taking dictionaries and looking for dirty entries

Isnt this always the joke? You know, "gee if they're gonna get all uppity about a word god forbid they crack open a dictionary."

Well, they cracked open a dictionary. Now it's banned.

Victims of three monkey syndrome.

reply to post by marg6043


I love this...the Bible will send them freeeeeeee.I take it you have
a problem with Fedex,UPS,and the Postal service?

Well that brings up a valid point. Evangelical Christianity has always felt threatened by literacy. Apparently the only book they need is the Bible, and if Christians could read the Bible for themselves then they wouldn't need Evangelical Churches to tell them what the Bible says in exchange for their Tithes that keep their Churches rich. In order to justify their existence, Churches seem to promote illiteracy amongst their parishioners to ensure a perpetual co-dependent relationship.

These groups got out of control in Oregon for a while. They banned every great work of Western Literature from Public Libraries and Schools (from Shakespeare to Anne Franck and everything in between). It got to the point where High School Literature classes couldn't actually assign any books to their students to read, because they were all banned. Finally when these religious groups petitioned to ban the Dictionary from Public Libraries and Public Schools, Librarians in our State petitioned to ban the Bible on the *EXACT* same grounds that got all of these works of Literature and the Dictionary banned (because the Bible contains Adult Situations, Graphic Depictions of Rape, Sodomy, Incest, and numerous stories of Human Sacrifice, Murder, and Genocide). After that, the religious groups backed off and no one has tried to ban any books in our State since.

Sounds like School Administrators in SoCal need to learn to play a bit of hard-ball back.

[edit on 26-1-2010 by fraterormus]

reply to post by mamabeth


Hey send them they will, but where I have not clue,

Originally posted by fraterormus
Sounds like School Administrators in SoCal need to learn to play a bit of hard-ball back.

Or just ignore them altogether. Let them take their kids out of the school if it bothers them so much.