Just so I’m not accused of the same trait that I’m bemoaning, let me explain the title.

It’s a riff on a standard line in  a number old blues and hokum songs.  The narrator, we presume, is youngish man, or a teenager, who isn’t quite up on the lingo of his older companions.  They make reference to an adult experience in a way that’s designed to obscure the reference to all but those who are in on it.  Hence its appropriate use here for a discussion of fads, crazes, obscure language and jargon.

The original line was “Won’t someone please tell me what diddy-wah-diddy means?”

That explained, on to the rant at hand!  Recently, we’ve been coming across references to “K20″ and “K-20″, as in the recent Betsy Webb piece in the Bangor Daily News.  We’ve figured out — not that it’s explicitly defined anywhere — that it refers to the whole kindergarten (or pre-k, thus sometimes it’s written “pK-20″) through higher education experience. I’ve heard K-16 used in that way previously.  So what does K-20 signify?

The larger point, of course is that jargon may serve to unify a profession with a common language.  At the same time it’s off-putting to those outside.

Many of the “outsiders” are parents of kindergarten through twelfth grade students.  Jargon serves to tell them that the “professionals” know best about education, and won’t you — the parents — just stay away?  It’s a bit hypocritical then, to complain about lack of parental involvement, don’t you think?