Comments on: Nature Words Dropped From Children’s Dictionary

By: Grace

Grace — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:18:38 +0000

This makes me so sad. What will happen to the beautiful traditions of children? Will the precious memories of stringing clovers into jewelry, picking berries by the lakeside, blowing dandelions’ white fuzz off with one blow, and singing childhood rhymes while jumproping be replaced by horrid technology that threatens your health? Even the Christian words such as abbey, monk, chapel, and nun are being removed. What next? Jesus? Christmas? Love? This leaves me speechless with sadness and horror.

By: Samanunga » Blog Archive » Nature Words Dropped From Children’s Dictionary

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:05:18 +0000

[...] Full article @ ecochildsplay.com [...]

By: David - climate change

David - climate change — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 22:49:44 +0000

They removed “dandelion” and added “celebrity”. Maybe in the next version Britney Spears and Paris Hilton will be in the dictionary. They might need to remove “sun” and “moon”, however.

By: Crimson Wife

Crimson Wife — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:38:23 +0000

Many of the other words that were dropped from this particular dictionary were Christian ones. I’ve heard the revamp was an attempt to make the book seem “less biased” towards traditional Anglo culture (the current editor is of South Asian heritage).

By: MAGPIE - Arthur Magazine Blog » Hello BlackBerry, Goodbye Blackberry

MAGPIE - Arthur Magazine Blog » Hello BlackBerry, Goodbye Blackberry — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:23:25 +0000

[...] whole thing broke in the UK back in early December, and the story just now seems to be infuriating “green” parenting bloggers here in North America (tho we read about it first at Next Nature), who are all posting pictures of [...]

By: Amy Jussel

Amy Jussel — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 08:34:55 +0000

This is the first I’ve heard of such an atrocity, even though on Shaping Youth we cover ‘media and marketing’s impact on kids!’ egad! I know the ‘urban dictionary’ offers slang, and the “Visual Thesaurus” adds media components, but I’d never believe this swap out would be sanctioned…I MUST look into this…and um, blog it. sigh.

p.s. This is a piece I wrote called “Media Savvy Kids & Nature Deficit Disorder” along those lines: http://blog.shapingyouth.org/?p=131

Someone has to tell this story to Richard Louv!! ack!

By: Danielle

Danielle — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 05:29:38 +0000

It pains me to think that children need to know a BlackBerry over a blackberry. To me, it is more telling about the parents’ priorities than the interests of a child. Sad.

By: Phil

Phil — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 01:37:45 +0000

I love technology in our lives, but this is an ABSOLUTE disgrace. So sad. I think that most children understand the majority of terms they added in the “technology” realm by the time they can speak, while they’ll grow up without learning about some of the world’s greatest assets. Unbelievable. Don’t suppose there’s a petition to change their minds? They should at least be made aware of their inane decision making.

By: Barn, backar och björnbär « MiljöBloggAktuellt

Barn, backar och björnbär « MiljöBloggAktuellt — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:57:50 +0000

[...] känns inte som ett helt annat ämne när jag samma dag läser hos Eco Child´s Play att Oxford Junior Dictionary har tagit bort bl a följande ord i den senaste upplagan: björnbär, [...]

By: dundeewriter

dundeewriter — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:51:28 +0000

Wow, I had not heard about this until I saw your Tweet. How depressing. This is definitely worse than when they added bootylicious to the dictionary a few years ago.

You beautifully-written post ties in directly with a book I’m currently reading– Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Here’s the author’s web site:

http://richardlouv.com/