The New York City Department of Education is setting out on a ridiculous endeavor.  Rather than focusing on how to improve education or teacher performance in New York City, the Department of Education is working on something that is truly “important”: banning certain words from standardized tests.  The Department of Education is seeking to have words banned from standardized test that reference rock and roll, rap, pornography, and dinosaurs. (no joke) The Department of Education claims that these topics are “unsettling” and distracting to students.  Clearly the New York City Department of Education is truly out of touch with what their priorities should be. 

According to CBS News, “Fearing that certain words and topics can make students feel unpleasant, officials are requesting 50 or so words be removed from city-issued tests."

The word 'dinosaur' made the hit list because dinosaurs suggest evolution which creationists might not like, WCBS 880′s Marla Diamond reported. 'Halloween' is targeted because it suggests paganism; a 'birthday' might not be happy to all because Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t celebrate it. 

In a throwback to 'Footloose,' the word 'dancing' is also taboo. However, there is good news for kids that like 'ballet': The city made an exception for this form of dance. Also banned are references to 'divorce' and 'disease,' because kids taking the tests may have relatives who split from spouses or are ill.

Some students think banning these words from periodic assessment tests is ridiculous. "If you don’t celebrate one thing you might have a friend that does it. So I don’t see why people would find it offensive," Curtis High School Sophomore Jamella Lewis told Diamond.

Check out the full list of banned words below:

Abuse (physical, sexual, emotional, or psychological)

Alcohol (beer and liquor), tobacco, or drugs

Birthday celebrations (and birthdays)

Bodily functions

Cancer (and other diseases)

Catastrophes/disasters (tsunamis and hurricanes)

Celebrities

Children dealing with serious issues

Cigarettes (and other smoking paraphernalia)

Computers in the home (acceptable in a school or library setting)

Crime

Death and disease

Divorce

Evolution

Expensive gifts, vacations, and prizes

Gambling involving money

Halloween

Homelessness

Homes with swimming pools

Hunting

Junk food

In-depth discussions of sports that require prior knowledge

Loss of employment

Nuclear weapons

Occult topics (i.e. fortune-telling)

Parapsychology

Politics

Pornography

Poverty

Rap Music

Religion

Religious holidays and festivals (including but not limited to Christmas, Yom Kippur, and Ramadan)

Rock-and-Roll music

Running away

Sex

Slavery

Terrorism

Television and video games (excessive use)

Traumatic material (including material that may be particularly upsetting such as animal shelters)

Vermin (rats and roaches)

Violence

War and bloodshed

Weapons (guns, knives, etc.)

Witchcraft, sorcery, etc.

Surely - aren't there better things that budgets and research time and be directed toward?  A reading passage about a certain type of music, rock for example, could actually be a positive thing. Maybe if the passages contained a handful of things that students were actually interested in, they'd perform even better. This seems like a step in the WRONG direction, if you ask us.