The Language Police (2003) (edit title/settings)

• Rated 4 stars

“I really liked this book. Diane Ravitch explores (from her qualified background) the insanity associated with the "PC" aspects of writing textbooks and standardized tests. I am the first person to point out when a word or concept is offensive or essentially "non-PC," but this book shows that it has gone way beyond just being sensitive to all people, and become completely ridiculous.”

• Rated 3 stars

“I think this book was written for a niche academic/intellectual audience that I just skim the edges of. The ideas and arguments are good, but it still gets a bit dull unless you are truly, passionately interested in the subject matter of education and/or censorship. ”

• Rated 2 stars

“Although I agree strongly with her stance that censorshop from both the left and the right is eviscerating education, the book overall was mostly a disappointment. Her "action" chapter is practically laughable, consisting primarily of "Stop censorship!" She fails to offer concrete suggestions of how to do so.

I found the index of this book to be lacking, and her suggested reading list to be very heavy on male writers, while omitting some rather important writers, most notably, Harper Lee. (To Kill a Mockingbird is still one of the most consistently challenged/banned books in America, it seems very strange to leave it off of a suggested reading list whose goal is to counter the impact of censorship in the schools.)”

• Rated 0 stars

“textbook tampering for special interests”

• Rated 4 stars

“A really important book. A must read for those who care about the future of our education.”

• Rated 1 stars

“I think this book is increadibly boring. Its a shame because the subject is so interestiong, but the format of the book is like a documentary in book form, I can't stand it, but I have to read it for school...”

• Rated 3 stars

“This is a good book for those of both the political left and right to read, as there was fair criticism of each. This is a fairly short book (the last half contains two appendices, sources and an index) and an easy read. It is highly repetitive but VERY worth reading. It highlights the modern issue of bland, factless textbooks and why this is so. Really, it’s not as boring as it sounds. It shed light on all of the times I’ve spent dozing off over the pages of glossy history and literature books. Those going into teaching or politics should definitely consider the information in this book.”

• Rated 0 stars

“Examines how the current publication of history textbooks and their perspectives on history have been profoundly affected by the interests of pressure groups from the left and right wings, sensitivity and bias committees, and state departments of education. It describes the publishers' bias guidelines for their editors, writers and illustrators; verboten topics all along the spectrum; even the ratio of men to women, people of color, disabled and abled in book illustrations. The author decries that today's textbooks do not provide rich language and that they confuse the stories of the history of the land, the origins of the American people and the history of the nation-state. (p. 154) All in the interest of "protecting" children and "boosting" their self-esteem. Revealing and depressing.”

• Rated 4 stars

“In a pursuit to create an "ideal" world where all cultures are equal, the elderly are as physically able as the young, men and women are indistinguishable, and potentially offensive occurrences are never encountered, various pressure groups have effectively censored what public school children learn, argues Dianne Ravitch. Because textbook companies want to make money, and their adoption often depends upon their statewide adoption, and this adoption is often affected by various groups who may or may not be offended by textbook content, textbook publishers have been eliminating content that would be offensive to extremists on both ends of the sociopolitical spectrum. The result of protecting all groups from "offense" is a tepid array of texts that are boring, inaccurate, and ultimately, censored. ”

• Rated 3 stars

“Overall, a well-done book that further illustrates exactly why my child is not in school!! My complaint-much like a lot of current non-fiction, the author is quite repetitive. I imagine that if I were doing this research, I too would be astonished at the goings-on, and might feel compelled to reiterate the more shocking ideas to illustrate my distress. However, it made for a less than stellar ending, IMHO.”