“With words, we govern men.” — Benjamin Disraeli
A teacher’s job is to educate. To enlighten. To inform. But that can’t happen if students–and their parents–don’t understand what the teacher is talking about.
That’s the problem with “edu-speak,” a form of jargon that’s taking over in our nation’s schools. Teachers are called educators. They give the children “assessments,” not tests. And students no longer simply “read.” They engage in “sustained silent reading,” or “SSR.”
Students in Virginia, to take but one example, need 22 “standard units of learning” to graduate, along with six “verified credits.” When I was in school, we called those “classes” and “state exams.”
All this jargon is specifically designed to be confusing. “It reinforces the divide between schools and families,” education consultant Anne Henderson told The Washington Post. “Parents are like,
