Extirpate Failure Through Euphemism!

Two recent developments might just push an observer of the education scene -- one less sunny and optimistic than yours truly (!) -- right to the cliff of despair. Both involve the degradation of our beautiful language, and both seem to work to erode the meanings associated with ordinary words.

Here's the first: in Massachusetts there's a protracted discussion on how to describe failure without, you know, saying anything, well, negative! Take a look at the article in the Boston Globe of March 22 ("Seeking a kinder word for failure,"excerpt, full article).

Here's the delicious part:

"This is all word games," said John Silber, the famously brusque former Boston University president and former chairman of the Board of Education. "Changing the name doesn't change the reality. I think Shakespeare had a good line: 'A rose by another name would smell as sweet.' A skunk by any other name would stink."

The argument for euphemism revolves around "stigma."

The other instance of euphemism rampant on a background of mollycoddle? The erosion of the accountability parameters of No Child Left Behind. Read " U.S. Eases ‘No Child’ Law as Applied to Some States" in the New York Times of March 19 (excerpt, full article). The complaint here is that the law labels too many schools as failing, when some, many, are only just failing a wee little bit.

Pretty soon there just won't be any failure at all.

Some speak of the future,
My love she speaks softly,
She knows there's no success like failure
And that failure's no success at all.

-Love Minus Zero/No Limit, Bob Dylan (1965)