The sanitizing and dumbing down of American texts began during the Truman era. Kids that had fought in WWII were aided by reducing the curriculum standards and many words were axed just so it would be easier to pass them.

I have a great collection of early childhood readers and in 1930 they had much more comprehensive vocabularies employed to the task of educating children. They had books called "Thought Study Readers" which encouraged pupils too pursue various forms of reading from information gathering to recreational reading.

Many tales included in these would surely be banned today:

(Thought Study Readers Book Six - Lyons & Carnahan 1930)

The Races of Man ------------------(Races? What are those?)
Manufacturing ----------------------(Too capitalistic.)
Another Adventure in Dark Africa ----(Africa is NOT dark! Racist and White-centric)
Father and Mother's Aritmetic Lesson
(Too old fashioned -families should not be depicted exclusively as father/mother)
Getting Acquainted with Banks -----(Banks! We don't talk about wealth!)
Who Are Americans? --------------(Too nationalistic)
Pioneer Trails and National Highways (Too white-male-centric, glorifying exploitation)
The People of Poland ---------------(Too white-centric replace Poland with Zimbabwe)
How to use a knife and Hatchet -----(Since teaching character is bad - this story might be dangerous besides there is an illustration of a white boy who looks like a scout- BAD!)

Another Home Run -----------------(Winning? Losing is far more enlightened.)

I could go on and on - as I am wont to do - but you get the point.

Yes, the religious right has edited books too and extracted pieces to support their views but all-in-all the left has had the textbook industry in a deathgrip since at least 1965.

I read the kids texts of today and am simply stunned by the distorted view of the world and of the US that is now being taught. For that reason I am a big proponent of home-schooling if the parents are capable and vouchers if the parents don't have the time but want some selection.

Political correctness is one of those oxymorons - it is not correct and not truly political, but rather more of a social disease used to control and dumb-down the future generation so as to facilitate the transfer of power to a certain group.

SDAI-Tech1