Mrs. Cotter was one of the teachers who profoundly influenced my life. She was my homeroom teacher during the confusing first days of junior high, which began with sixth grade in our own. She rigidly enforced the rules of grammar and made math fun. She read stories to us during those impatient periods when it seemed that the day’s dismissal bell would never ring.  She took adult community classes and shared some of her non-school interests with us. I clearly remember a paper mâché sheep she was making in an art class. She brought it to school every day to dry on the radiator at the back of the classroom, making us aware of that inexpensive art form and inspiring questions about the creative process.

Mrs. Cotter was my role model when it comes to loving and protecting our language. Her basic goal seemed to be the achievement of clarity. She demonstrated, with sometimes humorous examples, the importance of careful punctuation in writing. She taught us past, present and future tense and drilled us on conjugating verbs. We learned to strive for consistency, to find the most explicit word that said exactly what we wanted to say, and to give up common cliches and colloquialisms. She warned us about redundancies, slang and the importance of knowing the definitions of the words we used. We made lists of words with similar meanings, then checked the dictionary to learn their subtle differences. Today, Mrs. Cotter would be appalled at some of the things that come from the mouths of public speakers, politicians, advertisers and talk show hosts through communication media.

Unfortunately, many of the glaring misuses of language we hear today are becoming accepted as standard English. Such basic words as “fewer” and “less” seem to be a problem, not only for people who didn’t pay attention in eighth grade English class, but for people who write commercials and should know better. A commercial for a product to lessen incontinence promises “less urges to urinate” and an ad for disposable diapers claims “less diaper changes.” Somewhere along the way, the people responsible failed to learn the simple rule that “fewer” is for numbers and “less” is for amounts. And, Mrs. Cotter would never have tolerated the habit of mentioning yourself first as in; “Me and my wife are on vacation.” She would have pointed out that, aside from being grammatically incorrect (that should be “My wife and I …”) it is bad manners to mention yourself first in most instances.

Sadly, I have to concede to the popular usage of “momentarily,” which means “for a short time” but has long been misused as meaning “soon.” When the television announcer says that the President will speak “momentarily” he thinks he is saying that we can expect to hear from him within a short time, but he is actually (in the true meaning of the word) telling us that the President’s remarks will be brief. And that, you can be sure, is never going to happen. There has never been a politician who didn’t take advantage of a chance to speak and stretch it out for as long as possible. Sadly, I have to put “momentarily” on the permanent list of useful, specific words being rendered blurry and less specific.

Mrs. Cotter would be appalled, as I am, at the sloppiness that has overtaken the speech and writings of the citizens in a nation that is rated 13th in education out of the recognized 195 countries worldwide. Years ago, an acquaintance, having seen one of my paintings in my husband’s office, told me that she had been “appalled” to discover that I had painted it. She was a nice person and I doubt if she would have been so unkind as to tell me if she had been horrified or even shocked to discover that I was the artist responsible. I assume that she did not know the real definition of the word and thought that she was expressing surprise or amazement at my creative ability. I have heard the same mistaken use of the word on Antiques Roadshow when people claim they are aghast or dismayed to learn the value of the item they had brought for assessment. Well, sometimes one man’s treasure might actually be viewed with dismay as another man’s trash.