[s-neff]

Legendary. As will.i.am said... "I'm just gonna say it the way I feel it"
He's saying what some of us are thinking. He's saying what many of our students are thinking.

I have a lot of complicated thoughts about "explicit language", what the appropriate or inappropriate use is, and how a coherent team policy can be crafted around them since the use of language is so heavily context-based and culturally-driven.

I've had mixed results when they slip out of my mouth. Sometimes, particularly when it shows emotion, it humanizes me to the people relying on me (students at 841, engineers and construction workers at work) & I earn respect. Other times, because it sounds like I'm not a Real White-Collar Engineer, I lose respect. Sometimes, both in the same audience. Double edged sword. Handle with care.

On 841, I'm working on building an explicitly framed "Code Switch" facet into the program, based on ideas from "For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood... and the Rest of Y'all Too" by Christopher Emdin, to emphasize awareness of use of language. My students are #$%^ing inspiring to me, but they don't always know how to use the right words to *sound* inspiring to people who only speak Engineering English.