I had dinner the other evening with an old friend and she invited her neighbors who for some reason felt the urge to proclaim loudly and longly about their delight with the recent election results. But one of their claims required pushback.
Apart from the well-trodden "what is a tariff and how does it work?" path, which I did address although I made no headway, I could not let the "the new regime will cut inflation and bring down the price of eggs" stand.
For two reasons.
Firstly, they were both unaware that inflation is already down, close to the Fed's 2% target and the lowest in the western or developed or OECD world. I had to show them a few online articles for that to get through, at least at that moment. We did not discuss who did what to achieve this, or whether it occurred organically. Horses and water and what not.
The real concern and educationally-relevant point was their complete ignorance, and with their continued insistence borderline stupidity, of the difference between inflation and high prices. I spent about 15 minutes on this, and the concomitant point that reducing inflation will not automatically mean reduced prices. I did not want to get into deflation.
What finally saved the day was their understanding the relationship between speed and acceleration.
I attribute this vocabulary gap to a lack of reading, and of course both admitted they never read, although they do have the TV on all day every day so they consider themseves informed. As educators, we must focus on reading for language and vocabulary development, but also for inculcating critical evaluation of language, texts and claims.
Who, what, where and when are important. Why and so what even more so.
**Please leave comments and queries below.**
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