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Philomena Jones's avatar

I read this this a.m., and am listening to a new school superintendent at a major urban district give her speech to all school district employees. She just said "equity is a verb."

ACAN problem.

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TheAbjectLesson's avatar

@Barry -

If you meant "coarse" language (and it's in response to "WTSHTF") then I would respectfully note that your statement is incorrect. Some writing with coarse language is demonstrably better than that without - if you're writing a story about soldiers in war, or dockworkers, or mobsters, a story w/o vulgarity will ring so untrue as to be unreadable.

I'll concede that is generally the case for fiction narrative more often than it's non-fiction, but sometimes calling bullshit is the most effective way of communicating what's going on. Victorian sensibilities don't change that. Even the Supreme Court conceded that "Fuck the Draft" on a jacket was a viable form of protected 1A speech, as is burning a flag (though I believe the dissent's characterization of that as the "inarticulate grunt" of political speech is more true than not).

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Barry O'Kenyan's avatar

"coarse", of coarse.

NYET.

Coarse people use coarse language; learned people don't.

1. TES is not your average pundit.

2. It is like a science textbook containing crude words - they are incompatible.

Can anyone, anyone, define what "free speech" is, and its ambit???

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Katie's avatar

But if you consider TES to be a learned person, it would seem that learned people do indeed use coarse language.

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TheAbjectLesson's avatar

So, by your categories, "coarse" people using "coarse language" aren't learned people.

That's an interesting assertion and one that pretty quickly falls apart on close inspection.

This post isn't a "science" textbook, it's a weblog article. Certainly better than most, but it's not an academic curricula - which is a criticism of academe, by the way, not TES.

Your references betray an elitism around "learning" - specifically, "textbook" learning, the kind that contains no off-color phrases. Learned people aren't above swearing and "coarse" people can be exceptionally "learned." If Einstein's pamphlet on relativity contains a phrase with double-entendre in his native German, do you think that invalidates its claims?

You're imposing your own linguistic/literary preferences onto the rest of the world, and using them as a poor proxy for what counts as "learned." You've significantly narrowed what you believe you can learn by such a choice. I'm not saying I want TES dropping f-bombs unnecessarily because that certainly can and often does detract from substance, but you've turned that into a categorical assertion that doesn't hold up.

I did a ton of real applied science and learned a lot from helicopter mechanics dropping some expletive-filled sentences that often included a great deal of critical information regarding tricky and deeply technical problems - as just one example.

I don't want to overly pick nits because I'm sure we're fellow travelers, so I'll just tip my cap and agree to disagree.

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Duchess's avatar

I am so asleep this morning...Barry Okenyan are you being tongue in cheek to TES?

Course language (ha ha) reads as coarse language....

I can't understand the terminology either, would take a week of study to figure

out....

This is kinda like the BCG four squares thing with stars, cash cows, etc.

IN 3D...

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Barry O'Kenyan's avatar

I meant coarse, of coarse!

BCG = boston consulting group?

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Duchess's avatar

Yes. Barry you are too clever by half

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Barry O'Kenyan's avatar

Which half?

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Barry O'Kenyan's avatar

TES,

Please don't use coarse language. It adds to nothing in a written form of communication.

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Duchess's avatar

See my question to you above (I am still asleep)...

I am blown away by TES intelligence, and your remark confirms

yours as well. I cannot keep up with you guys....

(Making over the head motion with hand while issuing blowing wind sound effects).

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Barry O'Kenyan's avatar

Whoa! Don't compare me to TES. I have no experience in his fields of expertise - although I have a working knowledge on some of them. And I don't have his data analytic skills.

(Anyway, data analytic skills are "racist, sexist and bigoted!")

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