It's not often that I stray from movies and television to talk about civilized topics like books, but that's what I intend to do this afternoon. If any of you are looking for an interesting read before your classes bog you down with homework and "required reading", you should check out The Language Police by Diane Ravitch, the story of how textbooks and standardized tests are censored by pressure groups.

I requested it at the U-City library 2 months ago and finally got it the other day, so I'm only about halfway done, but so far it's both informative and entertaining. I'm sure all of you remember those reading comprehension questions on standardized tests about esoteric topics like the feeding habits of grasshoppers, traditional customs of indigenous peoples, and the like. This book talks about how these stories get put through the scrubber to make sure there are no stereotypes or examples of bias.

For instance, there can be no stories about snow or cold-weather climates, because these are "unfairly biased against southern students who have never seen snow", elderly people should only be depicted jogging or doing other strenuous activities, and the most absurd of all: the gender and nationality of people in textbook illustrations should match the percentages of each gender and nationality in the last census.

By this standard, the Festival could not be put on a standardized test. In the pictures on my header, for instance, I do not follow the proper census statistics, unless there truly is a 3:4:3:2 of men:women:elephants:tigers in America.