Controversial parts of a textbook for primary school students will be removed from a new edition for the autumn semester, People's Education Press said last Wednesday, adding that the current textbooks will gradually be replaced.

人民教育出版社上周三表示，秋季学期的新版小学教材将删除有争议内容，现有教材将逐步被替换。

A Chinese-language textbook for Grade 2 students includes a story that Edison's mother needed surgery for appendicitis¹, but light in the operating room was too dim, so the inventor - only 7 years old at the time - came up with the idea of placing mirrors near an oil lamp to better illuminate² the room.

二年级语文教材中有这样一则故事：发明家爱迪生的妈妈需要做阑尾炎手术，但手术室灯光太暗，因此当时年仅7岁的爱迪生想了一个办法：把镜子放在油灯附近，将手术室照得更亮。

Some teachers complained that the text is incorrect, as the world's first appendectomy is widely believed to have been carried out in 1886, while Edison would have been 7 in 1854.

有老师投诉称这篇课文不准确，因为大家普遍认为世界首例阑尾切除手术是在1886年进行的，而爱迪生7岁那年是1854年。

Zhang Min, the principal of Hangzhou Foreign Language Experimental School, said he was "astonished to see the text" and called for a revision.

杭州外语实验小学校长张敏表示，他看到这篇课文之后很吃惊，并呼吁做出修订。

The Edison story is not an isolated³ case. Another piece in the same book tells the story of a young George Washington, the first president of the US, cutting down a cherry tree, despite archaeological⁴ evidence showing there were no cherry trees near the house Washington lived in as a child.

无独有偶，这本教材中还有一则关于美国第一任总统乔治·华盛顿小时候砍倒一棵樱桃树的故事，但考古证据表明华盛顿童年居所附近没有樱桃树。

People's Education Press said earlier in an online statement that the Edison story first appeared in Chinese publications in the 1980s and was chosen as a text for primary school textbooks in 2002.

人民教育出版社在此前的一份声明中表示，爱迪生的故事第一次出现在中国出版物中是在20世纪八十年代，在2002年被选为小学课本的一篇课文。

"People at that time already questioned it. We inquired with some experts, but their views were divided," the statement said. "Due to the recent controversy⁵, we are asking more experts for suggestions."

声明中写道：“那时人们就已经开始质疑了。我们咨询了一些专家，但是他们的观点不一。由于最近引发的争议，我们正在向更多的专家咨询意见。”