Amen. The new terms on the treadmill should at least have the same information content as what they are replacing (and not just more syllables).
Can we at least slow the treadmill down a little? Some of these terms change often enough that I have a hard time remembering which one is the current ‘correct’ one.
Fuckit. Retard, disabled, whatever. If you are those things, then they’re perfectly apt descriptors. If you’re not, then feel free to take offense–it is what was meant, after all.
I’ve never seen or heard this used (as a noun applied to a person) in a nonpejorative sense, and I’m no spring chicken. I’m even old enough to use phrases like “no spring chicken.”
“Jerry’s Kids” are beneficiaries of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, long supported by Jerry Lewis. If you are incorrectly using it as a synonym for “retard,” you shouldn’t be surprised if people call you on it.
Really, this looks like another “I can’t freely insult people without being called on it!” thread.
It’s actually a minor annoyance of mine when a student writes a paper in red ink. A few students in one of my classes have taken to doing it and it means I have to switch to a black pen for their papers. It really throws my grading chi all outta whack.
Purple ink wouldn’t bother me too much, but when I get one in light green or yellow or some other pastel color it drives me nuts. My eyes are bad enough without having to strain them to read those papers.
I’m all for individuality, but big boys and girls write their composition assignments in black or dark blue ink.
And to address the OP: I have honestly never heard the word “retard” meant in any way other than as a pejorative. I have heard and seen “mental retardation” meant professionally and neutrally, such as in MRDD (Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities). But using the word “retard” just by itself is just a juvenile insult.
Worst thinking ever! This is one of my primary gripes with No Child Left Behind, in fact: the law wants everyone brought up to average, but once you’re average the law doesn’t give a crap about you.
Are you a kid with an IQ of 80? Your school will spend tremendous resources drilling you and drilling you until you pass the end of grade tests. You’ll probably fail anyway, but that terrifies the school, and rightly so under the law. By God, they’ll show that even an IQ 80 kid is going to Harvard!
Are you a kid with an IQ of 150? Coast, kid, coast, because your school knows you’re passing the test. Expect minimal assistance, minimal teaching directed toward you: all the attention is going to Mr. 80 IQ over there.
We NEED our brilliant kids to get a great education. We need a system that mandates that everyone gets to learn to their full potential. We don’t need a system that brings the low kids up to average and ignores the high kids*.
Daniel
- I guess that’s what the War on Drugs is for.
Which basically only means that when writing these laws, they’ll be replacing one term with the other, stupid yes, but this isn’t something the general public is being made to do.
Over the holidays, my elderly mother said something about “black people” and was told “Grandma, you shouldn’t say that – you should call them people of color”.
And she responded "What! That was where I started 80 years ago: ‘colored folk’. Then you told me it was negro, then african-american, then afro-american, then black. And now it’s back to colored? I give up, I’m just too old to keep track of these terms. Besides, most of the time, I just call people by their names, anyway.
We all laughed, but there is some truth to that. The ‘correct’ term does seem to change often, and there are some people around who seem quick to take offense when someone doesn’t use the most current term. They should save that until someone’s actions are offensive.
Whoever told her that is retarded, because “people of color” refers to everyone but white people.
There’s nothing offensive about “black”.
I wonder about that, as I don’t have the newest edition of the PC dictionary. I notice that the term has pretty much disappeared from newscasts, for example.
I didn’t get the memo, dammit!
+1
The genius kid is bored out of his mind, coasting. In the meantime, he’s getting used to the notion that HE doesn’t need to study or do homework, as he’ll get by without any effort. He’ll never learn how to work on stuff that’s not interesting to him, as he’ll manage to pass that course without doing more than looking at the textbook every week or so. When he hits college, he’ll get his mental ass kicked by all the kids with an IQ of 110-120, who are smart, but who also learned how to study and learn stuff that’s difficult for them.
On the other hand, if you challenge an intelligent kid, and push him to his limits, he’ll learn how to learn. He won’t just be marking time in school.
No Child Left Behind is a failure.
You just wrote my biography. I never learned to study, I didn’t need to until I was in college and suddenly up against people who actually applied themselves and worked.
I blame everyone but me.
Same here. Saying that someone “is retarded” or “has retardation” is one thing. Saying “he’s a retard” is something completely different.
This is correct. But as an adjective please. Black people, black woman, black child. Not “the blacks” or “blacks are always…” or “he’s a black.”
Same here. I felt like a retard.
Ditto. I’m a non-traditional college student now, learning stuff I should’ve learned 20 years ago, like how to do homework. I literally did not do homework in public school. I mean, people say they didn’t, but they mean they didn’t do it all the time, or they just didn’t like doing it. I didn’t do it. Working on anything for school once I got home was a completely alien concept to me. My test scores were always so good, though, that my teachers couldn’t bring themselves to fail me.
While using “blacks” or similar terms as substantives can seem too harsh depending on the context, I wouldn’t always condemn it in every case, especially when you’re trying to avoid writing “black people, black people, black people” over and over. For example, saying, “The racial makeup of the space station crew consisted of 9 whites, 4 blacks, and 2 Asians,” does not seem objectionable. It’s understood that they are people; there’s no need to say the word three times. Of course, saying something like, “Blacks sure do love to rob stores, don’t they?” is racist, but more because of the attitude behind the statement.
Valete,
Vox Imperatoris
Mencia isnt all that funny most of the time, his stand up has some moments though.
meh call me on it all ya want, I will freely admit to being a retard on more than one occasion
wow this sounds…familiar for some reason.
yeah never did like math after 7th grade, every day, every week, every month…go to class, teacher presents one equation, teacher explains one equation, students do 100 problems of that equation. needless to say I was bored out of my mind in the first week, teachers got whatever I could do in class for homework at that was it, then I had one ask me if I really thought I was learning anything in class…so I (a 7th grade kid at the time) pointed out to him that out of the 4 tests we had done in class so far my lowest score was a 97, I had the highest test scored out of the entire class. so they put me back in regular math classes, wow that was inspiring.
My wife got a masters in social work a couple years ago. The term they taught her in school was “delayed”. Prompting the less PC students to ask “Are they going to catch up?”
In all seriousness, I think the problem (in as much as there’s a problem) is that whenever a new term becomes PC, it inevitably ends up being used to make fun of people – and thus, ceases to be PC. I’m not sure what can be done about this, though (assuming that expecting people to stop making fun of those with disabilities is too much to hope for).
I think you just described my grade 10 math class. Lord that was boring. That was the first year we could choose our own classes, but math was required and everyone but the special ed kid was in the same class. Homework was never assigned–whatever wasn’t finished one day was assigned again the next with a few more pages. A couple of my friends and I were always done before the class was half over, meaning we literally spent more than half of our class time that year doing jack shit.
You can imagine the day when the only work assigned was ‘finish what you didn’t from yesterday’s work’. I should’ve brought my GameBoy.
(College was a predictable mess, with a sudden need to actually gasp do work being compounded by undiagnosed depression which caused me to not give a shit. I’m glad I went, but I do wish I’d been able to find the energy to work harder.)
I have to say, though, at least if another term displaces “retarded” I can feel less awkward using physics terms like this one.
Now if only we could change quantum mechanics terminology so that the dual of a ket vector didn’t share its name with a women’s undergarment.
Probably when he steals something really funny by a really good comedian, and is very excited about having stolen it, so that he delivers it with extra energy and enthusiam— nah, still not funny.
Retarded literally means “slowed”, so delayed is a pretty good substitute.