OCR Text |
Show PTA Launches Anti-Profanity Campaign "Talk" is a four-letter word, but it doesn't have to be offensive. Too often, though, the talk of young peolpe is foul or profane. Teachers of 15 years ago would have been shocked out of their socks to hear some of the words that are uttered quite casually by the students of today. Parents are noticing it, too, and some are trying to do something about what they hear. One such parent is Mrs. Theo (Janeal) Cox of Hooper, Weber County. She's active in the PTA, and she decided to ask that organization if it shouldn't help kids to ghet statements they utter out of the gutter. But she went beyond the anti-profanity campaigns that were waged during recent months in Iron and Utah Counties. The South Weber PTA group decided to aim their campaign against poor grammar as well as profanity. They decided to try to make "ain't" as impolite as some of the other four-letter words. The idea of the campaign was to make young people and adults aware of what they were saying. That way, they might be, likely to clean up their speech and their grammar. Mrs. Cox expressed a theory about profanity among young people. She said she believed that swearing became commonplace among high school students first, then caught on with the junior high school set, and finally became "cool" with some elementary ; students. When the PTA staged its speech awareness campaign, buttons bearing phrases the students coined were sold and distributed to students. Elementary students enthusiastically wore buttons bearing such solgans as "Profanity Is Insanity" and "If You Care, Don't Swear." A smattering of junior high students wore the buttons. Most high school students appeared cool to the campaign. cam-paign. ';!. .i.i ! ''?; ! If the effort is repeated, annually. j maybe by the time the elementary students reach high school, the speech and grammar of young people could be as inoffensive as it was 15 years ago. How do your children feel about profanity? Have you discussed it with them? |