SMART TALKSMART TALK SMART TALK
By Nurse Sotto Voce

GUIDANCE COUNSELOR: At the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired, we’re proud to have made a change for the better in the schools here in Underbelly, Texas. Both Horace Smith Middle School and D.B. Wesson High now have counselors.

Doesn’t that seem reasonable? It wasn’t always so at Smith and Wesson, and the change took some time. First, we tried polite letters, which were apparently ignored. The change to counselors occurred after we packed a series of school board meetings and laughed whenever they said guidance counselors, which is as redundant as prerequisite.

It worked. No one likes to be laughed at, especially in public.

After all, the Guidance Department counsels, and the counselors guide, so why use both words for the staff? If a school insists upon calling these overworked people guidance counselors, it should officially have a Guidance Counseling Department.

Efficient language is better language.

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