Mild ranting

LittleBear is, as the perspicacious amongst you will have noticed, in primary school. As such, he has lessons; he learns things. This is quite definitely a Good Thing. Occasionally I am in the fortunate position of LittleBear actually telling me some of the things about which he is learning. This is not an everyday occurrence I should point out. Usually our conversations go something like this:

Me: Did you have a good day?
LittleBear: Yes
Me: What did you do?
LittleBear: Stuff

Sometimes we shake things up a little, and LittleBear's final response is, "I can't remember."

But sometimes we actually manage some quite detailed conversations about what they've been doing at school, and it's incredibly illuminating. For the most part I am impressed by the depth and range of things they learn at school compared to my own, admittedly hazy, recollections of primary school. But occasionally I am left dumb-founded.

Take English for example. The children are being taught how to use a wider range of vocabulary and sentence structures in their writing, to move away from simple declarative sentences to richer, more descriptive prose. What term do you suppose is used to describe this process?

Are the children improving their writing? Are they extending it? Are they enriching, deepening, broadening, expanding, strengthening, enhancing, growing, developing or widening their use of language?

No.

They are "up-levelling".

Up-levelling???

Given the richness and variety available within the English language, does the world of education* choose to revel in that language; or do they choose to chew it up and spit out an obnoxious, contorted neologism that fails to exhibit any of the properties that the process it purports to describe is promoting?

I know that every trade, and every industry, has its own jargon. I know I lack any training in pedagogy. I do not, however, know how anyone with a scintilla of love for the English language can, with a straight face, use the term "up-levelling" when teaching children to write doubleplusgood OldSpeak.


* I am unable to determine where exactly this term comes from, but it is certainly not exclusive to LittleBear's school.