Yup, India’s got textbook problems of its own (see posts for April 27)–but the US is way ahead of us. With rightwing and leftwing groups involved in the sanitization of textbooks, here’s a list of what a US textbook shouldn’t refer to: Mickey Mouse (children may be scared of mice), dinosaurs (offends those who don’t believe in the theory of evolution), angry or quarrelling parents (not “uplifting), women in the kitchen (gender stereotype, and it won’t do to say she just went looking for a glass of water). The redoubtable Michiko Kakutani gives The Language Police her seal of approval.