My kindergartener told me the other day that the word “easy” is a bad word at his school. I asked him why, and he told me, “Just because something’s easy for you doesn’t mean it’s easy for everyone, and we don’t want to make our friends feel bad.” I guess I can somewhat understand the reasoning, but at the same time, I wonder how this makes the kids feel when they think something is easy and are not allowed to voice their opinion.
There are lots of things that are easy for other people but not for me (math.) I won’t hold it against you if it’s easy for you. I won’t decide I just can’t do it because it’s not easy for me. No, I just accept the fact that I have to work harder than you do on that specific task and take comfort in knowing that there’s probably something else I DO think is easy. And when I do that other task, I’d like to be able to feel proud of myself and say, “Wow, this is easy!”
Why do we try to make our kids feel bad for being good at something? If we keep this up, it won’t be long before kids are no longer allowed to feel proud of themselves for anything they do well.
What words are your kids banned from using at school? Please comment below.
~Mandy Webster
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Write on the World 
Wow.. that sounds like a good rule for teachers to follow (its really frustrating when someone who is struggling to teach you something keeps saying “it’s easy!”) but a bit much for students. Couldn’t we just teach them not to say things mean spiritedly? Blacklisting one word cuts into thier ability to express themselves but doesn’t disable them from being mean to each other if they choose to.
Good call, Mandy. That’s why everybody gets trophies now. Wouldn’t want anybody to feel like they might be better than someone else in any way. In all honesty though, I find it really sad that status quo is valued higher than individuality.
Trophies… I’m not the most athletic person myself. So, if I were to win a trophy, I would feel like I really accomplished something. But I don’t want any trophy I didn’t earn!
Today’s society ‘protects’ to much. Is it really protecting a child to keep them from competing or realizing that everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. That everyone is different?
The young adults entering today’s workforce have no spine, expect everything to be handed to them, and get upset when someone beats them out on a job or position that they truly didn’t deserve. Everything is going overseas because no one over here has the guts to truly fight, they have always been taught to go with the status quo and not upset the applecart. They are shown that if you don’t hire foreigners, handicap, different ethnic groups you are discriminating, It doesn’t matter if they deserve the position or can do the work..they get the position becuase the company needs to make a quota.
Okay, sorry, I will get off of my soapbox now.
I have two children: a two-year old and a newborn. They aren’t in school yet, but I’m pretty sure if (and when) my daughter comes home with a similar story, I’m going to have a conversation with her teacher about it. I understand the principle, that we want our kids to be cognizant of the impact of words, but to “ban” a word or phrase because it “makes our friends feel bad” is stupid. Like, seriously stupid. So freaking stupid it makes my blood boil.
Wow. There’s so many places I can go with this…