A PARAMOUNT LEXICON: Robert Pondiscio, senior fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, argues that a plethoric vocabulary is essential to success. Over at EdExcellence, he juxtaposes learning environments in high-income families where “verbal parents chatter incessantly,” with the “verbal inertia” in less fortunate households. A broad knowledge base and the ability to contextualize unfamiliar words, he posits, are keys to fluency and the “language of upward mobility in America.” We’ll whip out our thesauri, Pondiscio.
