Dear all
Does anyone have a succinct and poignant reply to the oft heard anti PC
position on language? I know you must all come across comments that berate
the 'correctness' of terminology. I would love to have a short smart
answer ready next time.
At 06:45 PM 3/8/99 +0000, you wrote:
>I thought you might be interested in the following. I am a School
>Governor, and last year we were sent a small booklet entitled "What Does
>it Mean? - A glossary for school governors", produced by our local
>Governor support Team.
>
>Amongst the explained words such as "learning difficulty" and "Emotional
>and Behavioural Difficulties" which I expected to see, I found
>"Educationally Sub-Normal" (in large bold type) The description (in
>very small type) stated: "obsolete term originally used to describe
>children with a low IQ. Now replaced by the more general term -
>children with special educational needs. Specifically includes those
>experiencing both moderate and severe learning difficulties.
>
>I was both surprised and concerned that this term should even be
>included, so I rang up the department concerned to complain, pointing
>out that if they thought it was fine to include such an "obselete"
>label, surely they should also be including "mentally handicapped" and
>other obsolete terms! My feeling was that it should not have been
>included at all, as some Governors might flip through and not
>necessarily read all the descriptions, and assume that it was OK to use
>such labels. As I say, if you are going to list "obsolete terms" then
>you need to list them all in one place, and explain reasons why they are
>unacceptable - which I felt would be far more useful to Governors and
>maybe help them to understand the kind of acceptable language to use
>within their role. (As I still find people who constantly talk about
>"handicap" etc.)
>
>When I phoned I was referred to a member of the Team, who it turned out
>had devised the Glossary! She seemed totally surprised about my
>concern, and couldn't understand why I should feel so strongly about it.
>
>Anyway, no further glossary appears to have been printed (probably due
>to cuts) but I still wonder if the current one is being issued to new
>Governors.
>
>Janet Iles
>
>
With best regards
Laurence Bathurst
University of Sydney
School of Occupation and Leisure Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
East Street (P.O. Box 170)
Lidcombe NSW 1825
Australia
Ph+ 61 2 9351 9509
Fax+ 61 2 9351 9166
E-mail [log in to unmask]
Note: This is the e-mail address for my home as well
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is not one shred of evidence that supports the notion that life is
serious.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|