Re: [Tutor] Checking for string in a list strangeness

[bob gailer]

AdamC wrote: I'm writing a small cgi application for children to use and I want to check that the name they enter isn't a swear word. Why? It seems that we adults are distressed by children using the very same words we use. What value is there in trying to stop children from using them? In the long run it is ineffective and just adds to children's guilt, shame, confusion and furtiveness. Words are just words. Only when we attach "evocative connotation" to them do they trouble us. Children are just emulating what they see and hear - these words are much less charged for them than for us. When we feel pain hearing them from children we would do better to examine our pain and unmet needs rather than tying to alter the children's behavior. Interesting quote from Wikipedia under Profanity: As a result, "profane" and "profanity" has therefore come to describe a word, _expression_, gesture, or other social behavior which is socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude and vulgar or desecrating or showing disrespect.[1] .... In many cultures it is less profane for an adult to curse than it is for a child, who may be reprimanded for cursing. -- Bob Gailer Chapel Hill NC 919-636-4239

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