Become long enough in the tooth as an educator and you’ll realize that with the dawn of each new calendar year also comes the DONAROBA (Dawn of a New Round of Buzzwords and Acronyms) in the world of reading, writing, literacy and schools.

It’s a COS (Confection of Scholarship) concocted by BBs (Bureaucratic Buffoons) about which you better not GCWYPD (Get Caught With Your Pants Down).

Luckily, my EIDE (Experience in Dissecting Edu-babble) can help guide you through the upcoming MOH (Morass of “Huhs?”) many readers of this column will surely face over the course of the next 12 months.

And so, without further ado, here’s a heads-up on the 2012 POO (Pipeline of Obfuscation).

Without a doubt we’ll all be in P4C-Core (Preparing for Common Core) mode. Unless you live in an NFM4UH (No Federal Money for You, Honey) state because Common Core is not on your DSDOE’s (Dysfunctional State Department of Education’s) to-do list. And while the BOSTs (Bashers of Standardized Testing) will be out in full force, the DOA’s (Defenders of Accountability) will be right there to meet them head on. Indeed, the bloody street fight pitting teacher versus teacher, administrator versus teacher, politician versus teacher and parent versus teacher will – sad to report - continue.

Unfortunately, this arms race is not contained to any one, single battlefield meaning that it will be a time of war on many fronts. We’ll have the BUTULs (Break up the Union Loons) versus the PTUAACL (Preserve the Union at Any Cost Loons), we’ll have the AOBCSTTNROTC (Advocates of Blindly Chartering Schools Though They’re Really Not Outperforming Their Counterparts) lobby versus the QSOADAGETWDKS (Quit Stealing Our Average Daily Attendance Gripers Even Though We Do Kinda Stink) lobby, and of course, we’ll see the CEBM (Corporate Education Billionaire’s Mafia) take on any and all comers who dare to question their insight, ability or motives.

Indeed, each of these clashes will go toe-to-toe on television, on the internet, and on Capitol Hill during the first 11 months of 2012. And why only 11 months? Well, it’s an EY (Election Year) which means that the CPWPAL (Cartoonish Politicians Who Pander and Lie) will be out in full force telling you anything they think you want to hear in order to secure your vote. Come December ‘12, they’ll all be back to their tone-deaf agendas.

Not to spoil your New Year’s diet plans, but since I come from the philosophical school of SPESDSS (Sugar Provides Emotional Solace During Stressful Situations), I suggest you plan on packing a few extra jelly doughnuts in your lunchbox this year. The kind with the GGO (Good Gooey Ooze) injected into them. When the seas of schooling get rough in the months ahead, you’ll thank me in spades.

Of course, the world of literacy instruction won’t be spared from all the tumult. The WGTNMFFF (We Gotta Teach New Media, Forward, Forward, Forward) progressives will launch lots of grenades at the ITCOTLNJTTTMETIDNRKHTUTTM (It’s the Content of the Lesson, Not Just the Technology, That Matters… Even Though I Do Not Really Know How To Use The Technology Myself) crowd. And though I do not consider myself to be all that prescient, I do believe this one is a battle that will most likely last for at least another decade.

The DOCs (Defenders of the Canon) will stand nose-to-nose with the AOYAL (Advocates of YA Literature). The EO (English Only) faction will knock heads with the BI (Bilingual Instruction) believers. And the WMDAWCTROTS (We Must Do Anything We Can To Raise Our Test Scores) crowd, well… who won’t they fight?

But curiously, there will be “shades-of-grey” skirmishes as well, such as when the fearful PEFOTOEWALOJs (Prepare ’Em for the Test or We’ll All Lose Our Jobs!) employees find themselves in conflict with LIAMTJTBT (Life Is About More Than Just the Bubble Tests) workers. Interestingly, this is will be a quarrel where members of each sideline find themselves opposing yet simultaneously sympathizing with their counterparts on the opposite sideline, a real head-scratcher indeed.

So what more can you do beyond arming yourself with jelly doughnuts to make sure your PFTQ (Preparation for this Quagmire) is where it needs to be as the calendar year turns? To that I say, think MBAS (Mind, Body and Spirit).

To fortify your mind, think like a child.

To nourish your body, I recommend green apples.

And when it comes to your spirit, well… has any teacher ever really gone wrong watching this?

Alphabet soup has long since absconded with literacy education, public schooling and cogent administration. Therefore, in 2012, you might as well just EMOTS (Expect More of the Same) because you know soon enough someone is gonna PALOHMROOTBACIONP (Pull Another Load of Horse Manure Right Out of Their Butt and Call it Our New Policy).

I really like the state of Missouri – especially the grub they serve – but methinks they are getting this one wrong. Banning teachers from friending students on social network websites is, in my opinion, a policy destined to fail.

Just like banning students from having and using cell phones on campus is a policy destined to fail.

All in all, it’s short-sighted and doesn’t reflect an appreciation of how connectivity and communication between people has changed, is changing and will continue to change.

What the state really wants to ban is inappropriate communication between teachers and students. And who is going to argue with that? (Not me, which is why I do appreciate where this knee-jerk reaction is coming from.) But it’s not the medium that can be targeted; it’s the inappropriate behavior by the participants that ought to be… and by targeting the medium – as if social networking sites are the actual problem that the state department of education fears – they are only setting themselves up to have to re-visit and re-construct this policy after its inevitable demise befalls it.

Ya know, according to the Pew Center the majority of employed adults (62%) use the internet or email in the workplace. However, as this article points out, social cues and etiquette are often overlooked. Which can cost people their jobs. And why is this? Well, part of the reason stems from the fact that no one is really leading the charge on teaching the appropriate use of new technology. I mean, we are educators. Should we not turn to educating students about the protocol of the medium as opposed to banning the usage of what is inevitably going to be a medium they’ll need to know how to well-navigate for the workforce.

Arne Duncan has said time and time again the words “college and career readiness”. Of course, they are oversimplified platitudes however, being well versed in how to navigate social media is most certainly “college and career ready skills” if ever I could define them and yet we are seeking prohibition over education and expecting it to work out well (while meeting the objectives of our national Secretary of Education)?

And don’t get me started on ho we are valuing the bubble tests which almost never appear in the realm of career readiness when it comes to doing an actual job on this planet. (Outside of working in academia of course.)

Ban the bubble tests and embrace social media and you’ll have a much more “college and career ready” student body in America if you really want to make some headway on tackling the platitunadalness.

I get that social media interactions can be a slippery slope. I also get that people often fear that which they do not know or understand and the people who are making these policies probably are not too technologically literate themselves so they read the tabloid-istic headlines of how FB can destroy a life, invite amoral relationships between students and teachers and have no understanding of how Google+ can improve classroom instruction. So they ban it.

But can they ban it all? Can they ban the forthcoming apps that will further blur the line between social media and essential modern literacy? What about the idea that they are banning not only contact with current students but with former students as well. So recent graduates who are of legal age to drink, drive, vote and so on can’t be FB friends without it costing an educator their career. Back in the day, I think that older people staying in touch with younger people to offer advice, help assistance, insight, encouragement, connections or what-not was called mentorship. Now it’s called “cause for termination”.

Sorry, MO, this policy is not gonna hold up. If the Supreme Court doesn’t strike it down as unconstitutional the weight of its own lack of weight is going to cause it to cave all on its own. In 2011 this may seem “wise” to some but by 2018 it will seem like folly. Better to educate and instruct than ban and hope it all goes away… cause it ain’t.

Expecting pushback, I am now ready for your flamethrowers.