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It might be vocabulary trash day. Back in the day, my buddies and I shared a little vocabulary all our own. This simple fun consisted of words we made up to take the place of other words that, of course; only we knew the code for. We could sometimes speak for sentences without anybody else really knowing the deal — cool, we thought. This little coming up thing didn’t harm anybody and we had a lot of hard laughs along the way. At some point, we discarded our little word game to the vocabulary trash-catch.
Although some word choices may change, kids communicate in “their world” in much the same manner as days gone by. Most say things they ought to, ought not, wish they had, and probably shouldn’t have. As my dad would often say “It has ever been thus’! The point being that as a kid moves along the hope is that they take on the vocabulary polish that will enable them to communicate effectively in the adult world, while not offending or repelling present company. Thankfully most kids will reach this minimum vocabulary proficiency somewhere in the neighborhood of young adulthood.
From time to time it is arguably a good idea around the schoolhouse and our own house to remove some of the vocabulary trash. A few words that work and words that don’t; or maybe shouldn’t.
Let’s get right to the trash collection:
Straight to the Vocab-Trash-Can go words such as: fag, retard, gay, and skank.  These truly have no place!  Wazzz-Sup! May be out of mileage-time for a new lead in?

Some words that work better:
Isn’t always, always trumps ain’t (unless it’s a really good story)
In the end yes works better than yeah.
Can always destroys can’t.
Finished is almost always a superior choice to done.
Regardless knocks out irregardless (substandard) every time.
Will accomplishes way more than won’t.
Nice is to popular as mean is to privately-can’t-stand!
Quiet, Listen-up, Eyes Here, Stop Talking, will always be more effective than Shut-up!, both at home and in the classroom.
Please, Thank You, Excuse Me and I’m Sorry are vocabulary gods.
We make these corrections in our kid’s speech over and over sometimes not seeing an immediate result.  However, as with many things we try to instruct, if you persist, they might take it on believing it was their idea all along.
Good Vibrations…..Happy Days….

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