[Speed Gibson,
Sunday September 14, 2008 at 5:20am]
An Inferior Superlative
I happened to hear an Education Minnesota ad, speaking of how excited they are to begin the new school year. My eyebrows went up when they said they spoke of students achieving their fullest potential. It sounded awkward, as though it should be "most full" instead. Actually, they should have simply said "full potential."
"Potential" is maximum ability or capacity. "Fullest" is therefore a double superlative, i.e., redundant, and therefore, less than perfect English. I was amazed to see how many hits "fullest potential" Google found, many from other professional organizations that should know better.
Still, how could an organization supposedly dedicated to education get this wrong? With hundreds of English teacher members and plenty of cash to hire a proofreader, is there any excuse for this?
"Potential" is maximum ability or capacity. "Fullest" is therefore a double superlative, i.e., redundant, and therefore, less than perfect English. I was amazed to see how many hits "fullest potential" Google found, many from other professional organizations that should know better.
Still, how could an organization supposedly dedicated to education get this wrong? With hundreds of English teacher members and plenty of cash to hire a proofreader, is there any excuse for this?
Unfortunately, neither Sorkin nor Orwell are available to write copy for Education Minnesota which must therefore struggle on as best it can.
I ask again, how can a mere blogger who got straight C's in freshman English spot this and their experts don't?
I think we ought to pass a law making "failure to educate a child to his/her full potential" a criminal act. Maybe that would get us some real educational achievement before we sacrifice ANOTHER whole generation of children on the altars of the public schools.
But seriously, it does seem that the written language is in decline, a product of our alleged educational system. I'm coming across more and more professional documents, commercial web sites and magazine/newspaper articles with serious errors in grammar and spelling.
I'm not talking about the fine points of grammar, just things like using "unseamly" for "unseemly" or confusing "affect" with "effect". ("Dude, just use 'impact' for both.")