Leaving aside the other problems he has with this week’s Gadfly, commenter John Rim is exasperated by Checker’s use of the word “kids” to describe America’s school-going population:

You are in an elite group, together with Checker cabs and Chubby Checker.

You are also in another elite, those who prefer the word “kids” to students, pupils and the like. I counted four mentions of kids. Two in the same sentence.

Students ? No mention. Pupils ? No mention.

Do kids happen when goats mate?

“Kids” is more apt to be used when writing about poverty, disabilities—even tobacco smoking. ( Tobacco Kids )

Condescension, loud and clear.

Ignorant as I was of the symbolic significance of Checker cabs and Chubby Checker, perhaps my views on diction shouldn’t be trusted, but I myself never hesitate to write “kids,” especially when I’ve used up all the available synonyms, a point one arrives at frequently when writing about education policy. Nor, a quick scan reveals, do reporters for major newspapers:

When high concentrations of poor kids went to school together, Coleman reported, all the students at the school tended to learn less.... the district began assigning kids to schools based on the income level of the geographic zone they lived in.... In Wake County, the vast majority of the poor students are black and Hispanic, and so mixing kids by class tightly correlates to mixing them by race. (”The Next Kind of Integration,” from Sunday’s New York Times Magazine)

Too Much Drama? Not for These Kids. (Headline from today’s Washington Post)... Watching With Kids in Mind (Headline from tomorrow’s Washington Post)

It’s true, as the commenter writes, that “kid” also can be used to refer to a young goat. But if we were to banish from the Gadfly all words that had animal-related homonyms, we’d find ourselves hard-pressed to comment intelligibly on the pressing education issues of the day. Take the word “school,” which in addition to describing a place were pupils—thank you very much, Mr. Rim—gather to receive instruction, can refer to “A shoal or large number of fish, porpoises, whales, etc. swimming together whilst feeding or migrating,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

Unfortunately, imperfect as the English language is, we have to work with what we have. We hope you understand, Mr. Peripheral Portion Or Outer Ring Of A Wheel, Connected With The Nave Or Boss By Spokes Or By A Web.

Photo by Flickr user alumroot.