Assessment
I’ve heard this word too much and now I hate it. It’s a way for academics to avoid talking about the real problems because they throw up an endless stream of straw men that they want to deal with first before discussing the real problems. It’s always “We should assess” which turns into “What can we do to assess” and that finally blossoms into a completely idle study of assessments. The real problem just disappears completely and the only thing occupying meetings are assessment tools and methods of assessment and ethics of assessment. The real problem has grown up, wandered away and eaten a bus load of school children while people are trapped in a meaningless committee arguing about assessment. This is related to the “Painting the Bike Shed” problem, in that a group of people spend an inordinate amount of time arguing about what color to paint the bike shed instead of what should be done with the 20 metric tons of nuclear waste adjacent to the bike shed. It drives me mad.