Companies preparing to submit assessment tests used in New York city's public schools have been issued with guidelines from the Department of Education suggesting that they stay clear of dinosaurs when compiling their papers. The word dinosaur is just one of a number of words and topics that the department have advised organisations preparing the assessment papers to avoid - other terms and subject areas that the compilers have been asked to steer away from include birthdays, aliens, vermin, terrorism and junk food. Does this mean that the city's students will miss out on learning about dinosaurs in New York's public schools?
Dinosaurs off the School Assessment Agenda
Under these new guidelines, writing the assessment papers may prove to be as tricky at actually taking them. These tests are used to assess the progress students are making in a number of subject areas including science English and mathematics, but in a move that seems to take political correctness a step too far, a number of topic areas have been deemed off limits.
No Dinosaurs in Test Questions
Whilst creating the test questions, companies are being advised to steer clear from certain subject areas, words and topics as they could disrupt the thought process of some of the students taking the papers, evoking unpleasant emotions in the examinees as they try to concentrate on the questions they have to answer.
Other reasons stated by the Department of Education for wanting to avoid such words as "dinosaur" include a desire to prevent bias against or towards certain parts of the population, or because the topic has already been extensively covered in textbooks and previous tests thus becoming over familiar and even mundane to the students. With a new dinosaur species being named and described every twenty to thirty days at the moment and with more dinosaurs having been named and described in the last decade than in the preceding one hundred years, the move by the Department to try to avoid the mentioning of dinosaurs in exam papers may prove difficult to achieve.
Other words and topics deemed as being not advisable include the term "Halloween" (conjures up images of pagan rites), "terrorism" - can portray excessive violence and "birthday" as this anniversary may be counter to the beliefs of some religious groups.
Dinosaurs are on the extinction list for terms with the department, presumably as any reference to these prehistoric animals could upset those parts of the population who don't believe or except the principles of evolution. Firms have just a few more weeks to finalise their papers and then to submit their assessment plans and proposals to the Department.
The Department of Education of New York City has been keen to stress that these words and topic areas, including the word dinosaur are not banned outright. The list they have created are merely part of the language and guidelines sent out to potential suppliers - they are merely suggestions about topics and subject areas that ought to be avoided. Such language and guidance had been included in proposal requests for some time.
Spokespersons for the Department have stressed that these are just standard terms that have been included in guidelines published by such departments for a number of years. The word dinosaur and others like may cause bias in any tests set or the use of such a word or topic area might distract students and the reason why such a list has been circulated is to help try to make the tests as fair and equitable as possible.
With the American Museum of Natural History in the city and with its amazing display of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animal fossils, it might have been thought that this museum would have provided tremendous support for the city's students, teachers and educationalists.
It is important that this news story is put into the proper context. Whilst it can be accepted the difficult path that the Department has to follow at times, advising the removal of dinosaurs along with other words from the assessment papers may limit the opportunities the American Museum of Natural History and other institutions can inspire young people.
Dinosaurs can Inspire the Next Generation of Scientists
With such a fantastic and wonderful educational resource (the American Museum of Natural History), in New York, it seems such a shame that educational companies are being recommended not to use dinosaur related test questions. After all, if you want to inspire the next generation of scientists, motivate children to learn more about the world around them or to give young people an insight into how the world is changing, dinosaurs would be a tremendously helpful subject area to explore for teachers and teaching staff.
The use of restricted lists are not just confined to the educational department of America's largest city. Having to adhere to such guidelines and policies is something that testing companies throughout the United States and indeed in the United Kingdom have had to do for some time. The list of subjects to avoid comes from topics someone, somewhere around the country, not necessarily in New York, may have objected to.
Dinosaurs a Rich Subject Area for Teachers
With the advent of a more creative curriculum in the United Kingdom, a number of schools are using dinosaurs and dinosaur related themes to help young people grasp science and mathematical concepts. For example, we have used a model of a dinosaur track-way to help children learn about measuring, the use of averages such as the mean and mode, as well as encouraging them to write creatively.
The guidelines issued by the Department of Education also covers other areas related to the testing of students such as how long test passages should be and what tenses should be used. The guidelines also suggest that the subject material should be "familiar and common to the lives of New York city students."
However, it does seem a shame that teachers and teaching staff may be limited as to what subject areas they can teach, as dinosaurs, fossils and prehistoric animals in general can provide students with a tremendous motivation to learn more. After all, if you are excited by a subject it is very likely that your interest in the lesson will be maintained and that you will pay more attention in class.
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