President Use Big Words, Nobody Understand

I’ll cut right to the chase here. Prez Barack apparently gave a speech of some kind - I have no idea the subject of which - and it seems that everyone is in a tizzy because said president used words that were “at a 10-grade level” and - quoting here - “may have gone over the heads of many in his audience”.

Hmmm. A speech using words at a 10-grade level may have gone over the heads of many in his audience, that audience being the American public.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

The last time I checked, education - at least up to the tenth grade - was free. No Child Left Behind? How about Every Child Dumbed Down?

Well, far be it from me to judge. If the majority of Americans cannot comprehend tenth grade vocabulary, then let me translate what we have so far:

President Obama gave a speech. He talked about important things. Many people heard the President talk. Talk, Mr. President, talk. People clapped and clapped. The president would stop talking while the people clapped. Clap, people, clap.

When the speech was over the people on the news shows talked about what the president had said. Talk, news show people, talk. They said the president used too many big words. They said the president should have used smaller words so more people would know what the president was saying. The news show people used big words too. They said things like “jargon” and “academic” and “shockingly”. Some people did not understand, so they switched their TV over to watch Friends or Ace of Cakes. Some people did not clap when the president talked. They were mad because they were missing CSI. They stomped their feet and called the president bad names and said he was full of poop. Some of them threw their remote control thingy against the wall.

Back here in It’s-Called-An-Education-Look-Into-It-Land, I don’t know why I was surprised. I should have known that the average American adult cannot comprehend tenth grade vocabulary. After all, I’ve watched Are You Smarter Than a Fifth-Grader 12 or 15 times now, and I don’t think I’ve seen more than a couple of winners.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.