NY State Education Department -- Leave the words alone!

A recent New York Times article, "The Elderly Man and the Sea? Test Sanitizes Literary Texts" notes how the New York State Education Department took it upon themselves to sanitize literary excerpts used in standardized tests.

Authors who suffered the editing including Annie Dillard, Anton Chekov, and Isaac Bashevis Singer. In the most ludicrous example, Singer's work is stripped of any mention of Judaism, one of his major themes.

My thoughts? First, if the Education Board feels they must gut the work of these authors in order to include them in the tests, why are they using these authors at all. They can use excerpts from other textbooks if they are so offended by the writing.

Second, how many times do writers have to stand up and scream to petty bureaucrats

"LEAVE THE WORK (and the words) ALONE!!!"

Read the work if you like it. Leave it alone, if you don't. Don't presume that you know better than the author of the work. Writer's don't come in and repaint your kitchen to another color because they don't like it. Do NOT presume to re-write the words of recognized experts in their field... for ANY reason. Take or leave it, but do not change it.