Ken Berwitz
In just the latest instance of taxpayer-funded censorship,students in one University of Florida course have been banned from using wordssuch as “husband,” “wife,” “mom,” or “dad” in the classroom and risk losingpoints off their grade if they don\’t comply.
In the syllabus for her “Creativity In Context” class – arequired course for any student pursuing a minor in Innovation – UF professorJennifer Lee informs students of her four paragraph long classroom “communications policy” that she says will enforce “ethical conduct” in theclassroom.
“The following policies and guidelines will be followed inthis course,” the policy begins, followed by a bullet point instructingstudents to “Use inclusive language.” The policy mandates that students “[s]peak in a way that does not make assumptions about others based on “norms”,stereotypes, or one\’s own identity or experience.”
The syllabus explains that this means replacing the words “boyfriend”/”girlfriend” with the more inclusive “partner” or “significantother.” The rule applies to conversations about married couples too: saying “husband” or “wife” is forbidden. Even the words “mom” and “dad” have a more “inclusive” alternative – students are told to use the word “family” instead.
