Words to Abandon
From the desk of Carol C…
Does this remind you of something you may have said to a teenager? Or maybe it was said to you. What brought it on? Curse words? Filthy words? Disrespectful words? It was probably a little of all of these. Well, I’m not writing today to take you back through your teenage years or make you relive your child’s teenage years. (Goodness knows I have NOOO desire to travel that road of my past again.) No, my friends I’m here to tell you about two words or phrases that we as educators need never to use again. Seriously…
- CUTE as in “that’s such a cute idea.” “Look at that cute poster.” We don’t have time to be cute. Well, let me clarify that. I don’t have time to be cute because I CANNOT do cute no matter how hard I try. If I have something cute in my possession you can bet that I didn’t create it. So why the problem with this word “cute”? Cute implies fluff. The word makes others think that you are using or displaying something simply because it’s cute. If you are only using the “prop” for this reason alone, put it away. Your first thought must be “how is this prop (bulletin board, poster, etc) helping my students learn?”. If it’s attractive then all the better. However, as long as the information you want your students to use is legible, clear, and purposeful, it doesn’t have to be cute. Trust me on this. Bottom line is don’t display something because it is cute, and strike the word from your school vocabulary so others don’t think what you are doing is fluff.
- I DON’T GET IT…maybe this is just a pet peeve of mine, but it drives me off the deep end (more than normal) to hear anybody say these words together. I always without fail reply, “Don’t get what? I can’t help you if you are not specific.” “I don’t get it” goes right along with “huh?” in my book. When I was a Junior Girl Scout we did an easy sewing project at one of the meetings. I made the mistake of saying, “I don’t get it.” Then another scout said something that sounded like “blah, blah, blah.” I followed that with “huh?”. At that point my scout leader said to me (somewhat condescendingly as I remember), “You pick up the spool of thread and start unwinding the amount you think you will need. Then you take the scissors and…” I was brazen at the age of 9 and said, “I know that. I just don’t get how to tie it off after I’ve finished sewing.” “Well, you didn’t say that now did you?” my leader replied. (Is it any wonder that I decided not to cross the bridge and fly up to Cadettes? Wait- I digress.) Please don’t misunderstand what I’m saying here. Absolutely without a doubt ask questions if you don’t understand something. Be specific however. Learn from this former Junior Girl Scout.
Do you have any words or phrases you think we as educators should strike from our vocabulary? What are they and why do you feel the way you do?