I am a teacher at Greenfield High School. Today we have two lessons. The first lesson is to examine the term: “penny wise, dollar foolish.” Webster defines this as, “Something that is done to save a small amount of money now but will cost a large amount in the future.” Can anyone give me a current example? Please raise your hand. Go ahead Mary … “I saw in the paper that the mayor is cutting the school budget because students are leaving the district. Won’t having, like, no middle school sports or larger class sizes lead to even more families pulling students from Greenfield?” Good point Mary.
Next lesson is about political double-speak, which is defined as ” language that deliberately distorts the truth, and sometimes reverses it completely.” Can anyone give me a current example? Please raise your hand … Go ahead Johnny. “I saw in the paper that the mayor, when asked about cutting the school budget stated “I submit this spending plan with some sense of optimism,” and then she said “I feel very badly … It’s not a pretty picture, unfortunately.” That doesn’t make sense! Good point Johnny.
Dave Madeloni
Northampton