The New York City Department of Education wants to eliminate the word “dinosaur” from standardized tests. Yes, you read that correctly — the NYC Department of Education wants to get rid of the word dinosaur.
Why? Because reading the word dinosaur, might make kids think about dinosaurs and then be all “rad, dinosaurs are awesome”. Oh, no sorry, actually the NYC Dept. of Education believes reading about dinosaurs might make kids think about evolution, which could make kids who don’t believe in evolution “feel unpleasant”.
Have the people running the NYC Dept. of Education ever, I dunno, seen or talked to a real kid? It seems unlikely. No child in history has ever, ever “felt unpleasant” thinking about dinosaurs. I don’t care if a kid’s parents have been making them listen to Rush Limbaugh and kneel before a shrine to Pat Robertson since they were born — you don’t have to believe in evolution to like dinosaurs. As a kid I never thought robots turning into cars was a real thing, but that never made me “feel unpleasant” while watching Transformers. In other words, just let kids have their f–king dinosaurs. Gawd.
Dinosaur isn’t the only word the NYC Dept of Education wants to get rid of — I kid you not, they also want to do away with “Halloween”, “birthday”, “dancing”, “video games” and “rap music”. While they’re at it they may as well go all out and get rid of “laughter”, “joy” and “childhood” too.
via io9
kid with dino via Shuttershock