Professor Ravitch talked about her book The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn, published by Knopf. She described the censorship of books that interest groups find controversial and the guidelines concerning the sensitivity of educational materials. The author, a former assistant secretary in charge of research in the Department of Education, argued that censorship has gone largely unchecked and it has resulted in many words being removed from revised texts because they were deemed offensive. These words include bookworm, barbarian, costume, dialect, drunk, garbageman, and heroine. After her presentation she answered audience members' questions.