Philly Students Create Teacher Handbooks With Current Slang

It’s a rite of passage that, when one becomes an adult, they become terminally uncool to people under the age of majority. I’m thirty-something, and when I am faced with a 20-teens young adult, I know that I personally have no friggin’ idea what their culture involves. I know that they are all playing Fortnite, that Ariana Grande is a songstress with a habitual ponytail and not a Starbucks order, and that they make terrifying drivers. That’s about the whole of it. Teachers in particular have to constantly face the culture shock of dealing with kids who have their own language, their own viewpoints, and their own likes and dislikes, all of which can be unfathomable unless you’re old enough to have teenagers of your own. Luckily, the kids know this and, in Philadelphia, have decided to do their educators a solid. Thanks to three students who interned at the School District of Philadelphia this summer, teachers have an unofficial handbook that lets them in on Philly teen slang and expectations.

To wit:

Sayless – an assurance, like “I understand”

Ocky – fake, inauthentic: “Jamal is so lame, his clothes are ocky.”

Sawdy – wrong, incorrect: “I thought I aced that geometry test, but those questions on theorems were sawdy.”

Outta pocket: inappropriate, out of line: “My dad wouldn’t let my sister wear those outta pocket shorts to school.”

But the handbook is not just about slang. It also contains well-intended advice to teachers on how to connect with their young charges.

“To help them understand the culture of and the environment of Philadelphia classrooms,” said student Horace Ryans [to abc6]. “My favorite thing is the five things to remember, keeping an open mind as these are actually scenarios and points of what good teachers look like.”

Philly students are heading back to school on Monday, hopefully to teachers who are down with what they have to say and how they say it.