The Importance of Speaking and Writing Well

Today I discovered two reasons to write and speak well.

Reason 1: Some of the kids at school, particularly mischievious 6th grade boys, have taken to "pantsing" each other. In my day we called it de-pantsing, but whatever. So there must be one kid who does it a lot, and two of my seventh graders got in trouble for making fun of him. Apparently they've been calling him "raper" all week, because he was pulling kids' pants down.

The principal called me and the 6th grade teachers in to discuss what should be done, but we all started laughing, and the first thing I could say was "Well, first, the word is "rapist." I suggest we get them to call him that first, then move on to the legitimacy of calling him that.

Reason 2: I was very excited about a summer fellowship with Intel. There was a position listed as an "Digital Content Developer," and talked about developing digital content, and managing a pilot program implementing the content. So I had a phone interview this afternoon, and came to understand that what they really want is someone to help them market a tiny PC to schools, and figure out what they need to do to sell it as a "must-have."

So I asked if there actually was any content development involved, and the interviewer said "Uh, no, not really. I guess I should have worded that differently...maybe that's why I had 40 people apply."

I was really disappointed. :(