Banning the Dictionary Because of Oral Sex?

by Michael Jones · 2010-01-27 10:38:00 UTC
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DictionaryForget the hullabaloo caused by books like And Tango Makes Three or Luv Ya Bunches. There's a new book in town that has pro-family parents wound up. It's called the dictionary, and it's teaching our children perversion and Godlessness.

That is, if you believe one California family, who protested the use of the dictionary in classrooms because their child went to the "O" section, and found that in addition to defining words like "oracle" and "orange pekoe," Merriam Webster also offers a definition of "oral sex."

Commence hysteria, and a school district thrown into chaos while they formed a committee to determine whether the dictionary was an "age-appropriate" book to be included in classrooms.

Have we seriously reached the point of prudishness that we have to ask whether the dictionary is age appropriate material for students in the fourth grade? Thankfully, school board administrators came to their senses and reinstated the dictionary as an appropriate book for kids. But not before telling parents throughout the school district that they could request a family-appropriate dictionary instead of the blasphemous Merriam-Webster's.

The dictionary scandal is pretty ironic in its timing. While school districts in the U.S. wonder whether the dictionary is too naughty for students, the man running to be the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom told his entire nation that students should be learning about equality and same-sex relationships in the classroom.

"We do need good sex and relationship education. That education should teach people about equality, that we treat people the same whether they are gay or straight. I think that is really important that we embed that in the ethos of our education," said Tory leader David Cameron.

My, what a difference a continent makes. Maybe the U.S. could take a few lessons form the motherland. Here's one: what shouldn't be part of the ethos of American education? How about censoring dictionaries to the point where the only vocabulary words available for students to learn are Pat Robertson-approved.

Photo credit: eiratansey

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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