Should we fight "bureaucratise" with education?

Recently elected Monterey Peninsula Unified board member Jon Hill campaigned to "tirelessly trump education babble with plain language."

The idea made me feel a bit funny, but I wasn't sure why. Then I spoke with El Brown, an educator, military wife, and contender for the "Military Spouse of the Year." And something clicked.

Brown has a child with autism spectrum disorder, and through countless meetings with therapists and doctors, this is what she's concluded: parents need to be informed about the lingo used in educational circles so they understand what educators talk about.

That's it, I thought.

There's no doubt the educational system is steeped in jargon. After all, those who designed it are the über educated -- the Ph.Ds, the masters, and they love to give you fancy terminology in college. And the fancier the college, the fancier the terminology.

But how's one to fight with layers of bureaucracy that dictate what an API, an AYP, an IEP are? Bureaucracy not created at the local level, but dictated from Sacramento and Washington? Wouldn't it be better to teach our parents what these terms mean? To bring them up instead of talking down?

No doubt some technical language can be simplified -- my editor would tell you, I'm guilty as charged. But maybe there's ways also to educate the general public on educational terms. Education is to be embraced, not feared. What do you think?

I have a profile of El Brown coming out in the paper in a day or so. Stay tuned.