More evidence of "Dumbing down"

While working on a literature list for school, I wrote an article for the

parents on why I do not give summer reading credit for students who read Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries past age ten.                                                                                                                                                                                        

(That is not the subject of this blog, but if anyone is curious I could reprint the article here....if someone would let me know....if anyone is reading....and knows how to post a comment.)                  

                                                                                                                       My research about the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew led me to some reviews which reminded me that the current editions are not the same stories I read as a child.  Using the same titles, all the originals have been rewritten to make them more "culturally sensitive."  I was already aware of this, but assumed it meant innocuous things like replacing roadsters with convertibles and elimnating neckties from the boys' everyday wardrobes.  Comments by several reviewers revealed a wider set of changes.  In brief, the criticisms were:   (1)   the new books are dumbed down (length and vocabulary); (2)  the new books concerntrate on political correctness;  (3) the new books lack depth of character and complexity.   

One reviewer went so far as to say he had saved a complete collection of the Hardy Boys' old versions and had them under lock and key in his home (as though they were the last remaining copies and someone would try to destroy them!).  Another reviewer commented the she was glad she realized they had been rewritten before purchasing the first three volumes for her grandchild.  She went online and found reprints of the originals.  Her closing comment was "They get enough political correctness in their life as it is."                                                              I am writing about this, not because I think the originals of these two series were that wonderful (they were not great writing) or because I think every child should (or should not) read either the originals or the revisions.  My point is that publishers, parents, and "popular wisdom" think that present day children should read shorter books with simpler vocabulary and values different from those of their grandparents....because why? I hope someone is asking these questions before we have produced a generation that can't read, can't understand words of more than two syllables, has no knowledge of the past, and assumes that all old ideas are "wrong."   

If you are a parent, grandparent, or a teacher, I hope you will consider this trend, and then put some "dangerous" books in a child's hands today!  Start with the Bible!