Thursday, October 25, 2018

Connotation

"This is one motley school!" a student proclaimed as she stood before my desk waiting to ask a question.

"Excuse me?" I said. "Why would you say that?"

She pointed to my word-a-day desk calendar. "Motley," she read, "composed of diverse elements." She looked at me. "We're diverse!"

"Oh!" I laughed. "But 'motley' isn't usually considered to be good diversity. This is a good example of why you need to know more than the definition."

"It's not a compliment?" she clarified.

I shook my head. "Not usually."

"Well then, our school is definitely not 'motley'!"

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