The Devil's Dictionary of Education

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by Tyrrell Burgess

Continuum Publishing

Due/Published February 2003, 160 pages, paper

ISBN 0826463231

Inspired by Ambrose Bierce's popular The Devil's Dictionary, this A-Z dictionary of educational terms offers funny and thought-provoking definitions of what these terms "really" mean. A few examples:

administration: n. the whole duty of schools since l988

bar chart: n. patronizing attempt to make statistics palatable by packaging them like chocolates

consult: v. to seek approval for a course of action already decided upon so as to reassure the perpetrator that he can proceed with impunity

educated: adj. systematically misled

graffiti: n.pl. reliable indicators of the morale of a school, particularly those in the girls' lavatories

speech: n. that which in most people precedes thought by anything from half a second to a lifetime