LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Oh heck: Hell hath no place in American primary and high school textbooks.
But then again you can't find anyone riding on a yacht or playing polo in the pages of an American textbook either. The texts also can't say someone has a boyish figure, or is a busboy, or is blind, or suffers a birth defect, or is a biddy, or the best man for the job, a babe, a bookworm, or even a barbarian.
All these words are banned from U.S. textbooks on the grounds that they either elitist (polo, yacht) sexist (babe, boyish figure), offensive (blind, bookworm) ageist (biddy) or just too strong (hell which is replaced with darn or heck). God is also a banned word in the textbooks because he or she is too religious.
To get the full 500-word list of what is banned and why, consult "The Language Police," a new book by New York University professor of education Dianne Ravitch, a former education official in President George H.W. Bush's administration and a consultant to the Clinton administration.
Full story here:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/EDUCATION/05...eut/index.html
"Blind" is offensive? Is "deaf" offensive, too?
Those words simply describe physical conditions, and unlike, for example, "retarded," do not imply a mental or intellectual limitation that may not be accurate.
Do you really have to say sight-impaired or hearing-impaired?
And what if you are writing a history book and including the tragic story of Diana, Princess of Wales as part of a larger discussion fo the role of the British Monarchy in modern life. Do you have to write, "Prior to her death, Diana vacationed with Dodi Fayed on his big fancy boat; this vacation is believed to mark the beginning of their ill-fated romance. Diana was, by all accounts, happier with Dodi than she ever was with the Prince of Wales, who once humiliated her by inviting his mistress to an event where he rode a horse while trying to hit a ball with a stick."
On second thought, I'm sure you can't say mistress.
I'm still not over Diana. 
