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Show School TN and y&& Home j by Dr. Daryl J. McCarty V. -s Executive Secretary Utoh Education Association You might feel a bit upset when you hear a doctor describing de-scribing something on your hand as being a "circumscribed "circumscrib-ed protuberance of the cori-um." cori-um." Relax. It's probably just a wart. You might also feel a slight rise in your blood pressure when your mechanic expresses express-es a fear that the worm gear, thermostat or camshaft in your car is on the fritz. Your lawyer, TV repair specialist, florist or barber may also use words that mystify you. Virtually every profession and vocation has its own specialized language. Yes, even educators. These languages langu-ages are readily understood when used in conversations between persons in the same line of work. However, the words or phrases can be a pain. For example, follow this sentence closely: "Our school's cross-graded, multi-ethnic, individualized learning program with emphasis em-phasis on a continuum of multi - ethnic, academically enriched learning using the identified intellectually gifted child as the agent or director of his own learning." You have just read the "worst education sentence of 1976," as determined by the Educational Press Association of America. That sentence was in a letter from a school principal to a parent. If you found yourself counting count-ing to ten after you read the worst sentence in education last year, stop for a moment and think about how your children react to the dinner table conversation of parents. They're sophisticated. Parents Par-ents use exotic words, and they make kids curious. Maybe May-be children get just as resentful resent-ful as you would if you'd gotten that letter from the principal. But don't change your speech pattern to the dialogue you'd expect to find in a second grade reader. Just answer cheerfully and accurately accur-ately when your child asks you to explain what you meant when you said "continuum." |