Words are a tricky thing to mess with, especially when you are talking to adolescents. Terms like "gay" or "retarded" should not be thrown around willy nilly. When a person in authority, especially a teacher of professor uses language like this in front of adolescents, it teaches them that it is ok to use that language. It IS NOT OK! I will repeat that until it is ingrained in everyone's heads. It is not a proper environment for kids or students to be in when the adults in their lives use negative language to talk about other people. Gay is technically a term that should be used for something that is happy and jubilant. Now, it is also a term that is polite to be used when referring to a homosexual individual. Retard or retarded is a term that refers to someone with a mental retardation, but it should never correctly be used as an adjective for a person. Someone can have a mental retardation or be mentally-retarded, but they are not simply "retarded" and a situation is not merely "retarded" due to it being stupid or lame.
I always get extremely upset when someone uses this terminology, because they don't realize that it is a form of verbal abuse. Ponder that! Every time you use a word improperly you are verbally abusing the person you spoke illy about, and you are verbally abusing a person who really does apply to that term you misused.
Websites like
www.r-word.org are around to help combat the negative language. Go online, and sign the pledge. Be the Change! Change Your Language!
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