Banned Dictionaries?
A parent from a school in SOCAL has complained about Mirriam-Webster dictionaries being used in classrooms for children aged 9-10 because the definition for oral sex was found. Since then, the dictionaries have been pulled so they can find more “sexually graphic” words.It is unknown whether or not they will continue to use those dictionaries at a later date. source
Should children aged 9-10 know the dictionary definition of oral sex?
Mirriam-Webster definition of oral sex: Oral stimulation of the genitals
My thoughts: Educating is not necessarily going to provoke kids to go out and experiment. While I admit that oral sex is a bit of an accessory to sexuality that probably shouldn’t be electively taught at that age (there is no reason for it)… I don’t see any harm in them knowing the general basis of what it is and that it is something adults do.
There are plenty of age-inappropriate words in the dictionary. It’s a giant list of words, for christ’s sake!
I think I saw another blog where one mom’s daughter discovered the word orgasm. She kind of glossed over it after her daughter gave her thoughts and then told her to get back to looking up the vocabulary words. I’d think by 9/10 kids might be ready to start learning some of these things.
oh geez. like you said, education will not lead these kids to temptation! i remember being a kid & seeing words like that and being sacked with fits of the giggles. (or singing along to Def Leppard “when you make love… do you look in the mirror?” and being mortified my mom was in the car) Kids are embarrassed by this. But now taking away the dictionaries shows them they should also be ashamed. What a terrible society I often think we live in!!!
Agree with you. This society makes me embarassed, not the contents of dictionaries…