Scientifically Speaking, You’re an Idiot

It might sound odd, but one of my favorite books is the dictionary. Learning a new word or two is cool, but the real reason that I like it is because it helps me—and others—use words properly. Knowing the definitions of things can make people stand out.

If you’re ignorant of a word’s definition, you can quickly look like a moron. Such was the case in 2002 when Stephanie Bell, a teacher at Williams Elementary School in North Carolina, used the word niggardly correctly during a discussion about literary characters. The word means stingy or miserly; think Ebenezer Scrooge.

Sadly, Bell forgot that she was in the United States, where ignorance is more important than intelligence, and she quickly found herself being reprimanded by principal Susan Hahn after a parent complained.

The parent, Akwana Walker, wasn’t really sure what the word niggardly meant but she did know that it sounded like the N-word. Was it a synonym for that racial slur? Walker didn’t know but it wasn’t important. She wanted the world to know that she rarely cracks open a dictionary.

Anyhow, Principal Hahn made Bell apologize to Walker for using the word (properly) and then sent her to sensitivity training. Deputy Superintendent Norm Shearin said that it was a “bad decision” for Bell to teach children such a word. (For some reason I can picture the administration at this school saying that about all vocabulary words.)

Here’s the full story from the Wilmington Star for posterity’s sake (they’ve taken the story down from their site but other sites still have it posted):

Wilmington, North Carolina – A fourth-grade teacher at Williams Elementary School has received a formal reprimand for teaching her students the word “niggardly,” the teacher’s son said Tuesday.

Last week, teacher Stephanie Bell said she used the word “niggardly,” which means stingy or miserly, during a discussion about literary characters. But parent Akwana Walker, who is black, protested the use of the word, saying it offended her because it sounds similar to a racial slur.

Ms. Bell said the N.C. Association of Educators has told her not to talk to anyone about the situation. “I really wish I could,” she said.

However, teacher Stephanie Bell’s son, Tar Bell, 17, who is not restricted from discussing the incident, said a letter from Principal Susan Hahn stated that his mother used poor judgment. The letter, he said, also instructed his mother to send an apology to her students’ parents, a step she took last week. The letter, which Mr. Bell said he has read, also admonished Ms. Bell, who is white, for lacking sensitivity to the school’s diverse population of students and not being aware of cultural differences, he said.

The teacher’s son, Tar Bell, reported to the Wilmington Star that the letter also required his mother to attend sensitivity training and threatened that if she did not she could face further action.

In addition to the letter, Ms. Walker’s daughter was moved to another class, and Ms. Bell agreed not to use the word again with her students.

I was reminded of this incident when I came across a story in the Dallas Morning News which detailed how Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price and Judge Thomas Jones learned a new term that the rest of us learned in third grade science class: black hole.

According to the Dallas Morning News:

A special meeting about Dallas County traffic tickets turned tense and bizarre this afternoon.

County commissioners were discussing problems with the central collections office that is used to process traffic ticket payments and handle other paperwork normally done by the JP Courts.

Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who is white, said it seemed that central collections “has become a black hole” because paperwork reportedly has become lost in the office.

Commissioner John Wiley Price, who is black, interrupted him with a loud “Excuse me!” He then corrected his colleague, saying the office has become a “white hole.”

That prompted Judge Thomas Jones, who is black, to demand an apology from Mayfield for his racially insensitive analogy.

Mayfield shot back that it was a figure of speech and a science term. A black hole, according to Webster’s, is perhaps “the invisible remains of a collapsed star, with an intense gravitational field from which neither light nor matter can escape.”

It’s a good thing that he didn’t use words like analgesic, angina, bilingual, penal, or sects in front of Price and Jones. Then things would have really turned ugly.

References

Krause, Kevin. “Dallas County Officials Spar Over ‘Black Hole’ Comment.” Dallas Morning News. 7 July 2008.

“Teacher Reprimanded for Word Choice.” Wilmington Star. 4 Sept. 2002.

Ω