More proof that bureaucrats are convinced that they are more intelligent than the average citizen, comes this enlightening article from NWCN.com.
The one thing missing from this piece is how much money has been wasted on this program. I mean, has anybody in government ever heard of a dictionary? One of the reasons that “big words” are sometimes used, is that they more accurately connote the intended meaning, to reduce confusion and misunderstanding. Saying “youths who stay crime-free” is not the same thing as ” the rate of recidivism”.
“SALEM, Ore. — A 2007 law requiring Oregon state workers to write in plain language hasn’t been so simple.
The Department of Consumer and Business Services says 750 employees have been trained, dozens of documents have been rewritten, and hundreds of websites have been edited for clarity.”
“One obvious word that’s part of our job is recidivism,” Snyder said. “That just means, to oversimplify it, recommit a crime.” After a second’s thought, she added, “Recommit is even a long word.”
“We try to say things like ‘youths who stay crime-free” rather than the ‘rate of recidivism,”‘ she said. “We understand the word recidivism, but we want the youth to understand that we want them to remain crime-free.”
The rest HERE…
Has she no clue that “da yoots” aren’t interested in reading anything being produced by our state agencies? And anyone who is interested, prolly has the training and experience that means “hard words” are indeed, understandable?
Think of the works of C.S. Forester. I believe they were written for youths, since I first came upon them as a gift from gramma. And to understand them, you need to have a dictionary nearby.
I was raised by parents who responded to “what does this word mean?”with the answer, “look it up.”
And then, they would check to see what I looked up. As a parent, I now realize that they might not have known the meaning, either. But a parent never exposes. What this practice created was a vocabulary that contains more than seventy words. It also meant I knew where the reference section of the libraries I visited were located. Sometimes you needed more than a dictionary. Sometimes you needed an encyclopedia.
Ann Snyder is a moron. That she is a spokeswoman for a state agency dealing with youth is less troubling than were she working directly with youth.
I had a recent experience with my youngest, twenty year-old son; we had a breakfast that included grapefruit halves. He’d had grapefruit sections before, and grapefruit juice. But he asked, how one went about eating grapefruit as presented. Sometimes it’s easier to show how a thing is done than say, figure it out for yourself. Like, how to use a dictionary. But once taught, it’s a skill that will last a lifetime. Too bad for Ms. Snyder, that she doesn’t believe in actually improving the lives of the individuals she’s tasked with speaking for. Instead, we will dumb the world down around us so that the yoots need not bother their pretty little heads.
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