You get all the very best teachers in the world on here!

Dionysius lived at the time of Julius Caesar. We have no idea what he looked like. He lived in Rome and wrote in Greek. But his simple ideas live on in our own language: English - even today.

Words.

Every language is made up of words.
Can you remember way back when you were learning to speak and making up words for yourself? Terribubble. Neolopitan ice cream.

People love doing that today too. It makes them look important.

So in Brexit we have “the Backstop”. We enjoy “the Divorce Settlement”. Then there is “the Norway Option” maybe with a couple of ++ added.
Babies just blow bubbles: we adults blow words.
Perhaps you know someone who cannot read very well? That is dyslexia. Or someone who can't control themselves? That is ADHD. Or perhaps someone who is not very good with other people? Easy – Autistic.
It doesn't really help but it makes everyone feel special.
Unpleasant things – alcoholism, dustbins, stressing racial differences – things which make us feel uncomfortable change their names regularly. The old words become swear words only used in anger while the new shiny words have to be used – or else.
Gay is just such a word. BME another. Transgender another.
I leave you, gentle reader, to work out the older words which now can get you the sack in an instant.

Yes. Words used wrongly can cost your job.

Kristie Higgs questioned teaching sex to five year olds. She had been a teaching assistant for some seven years. She wrote about it online and included the word “Christian”.
After waiting for disciplinary hearings for some months, she was dismissed for “gross misconduct” and “bringing the school into disrepute”. One of the Governors used the words “far right” which the Chairman interpreted as “something that was pro-Nazi.”
And so on…
Mail 21st April 2019



Words matter a lot today: be careful with them!