Educating the Educators: Use the Language Properly, People

There was a conference on workforce training yesterday at Hotel Roanoke (report here) whose primary contribution to the conversation ("How the hell do I get a job?") was stating the obvious and this from Roanoke School Board member Mae Huff:

"We have to be able to dialogue about how to improve our school system and also add valued employees to the business community,"

Miss Mae, you might want to get your butt into a remedial English course before the next school board meeting--where you are making policy to help kids read and speak our language. "Dialogue" is not a verb. It is a noun. One does not "dialogue." He "engages in dialogue" or he "has a conversation" or he "discusses" or "talks" or "speaks." 

Using nouns improperly as verbs is one of those maddeningly lazy, disrespectful (of the language and the person you're chatting with) and thoroughly uneducated traits found so often in those who have the podium.

Education conferences, even those that include business people, are all too often exercises in inflating the egos of those on the podium, not teaching the teachable and helping people become prepared for a tough job market. The very least we should expect from our educators is that they speak our own language properly.