Last year, I remember hearing the Minister of Education of the Province of Ontario say, on the radio, that her department was dedicated to providing every student in Ontario with a "quality education".
Am I the only one who finds it irritating, oftentimes, when people misuse words and sentences? "Quality education"? What quality? She doesn't say. The quality of mercy? Not in these quarters.
I'm not a language snob. Sometimes language changes for the better, becomes enriched, more flexible, and sharper. "Cyberpunk" is a great new word. So is "internet" and "wired" (in the sense of "wired world").
Sometimes, however, people are just too lazy to formulate a complete sentence. "Quality", like "oftentimes", seems more the result of mental passivity than activity. What the Minister of Education probably really meant to say was that her department would try to ensure that the good quality of education in Ontario would not be endangered by her government's stupid policies towards the teachers' unions.
