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WotD: Free rein
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Have you ever felt that you’d like to have free rein at the office?
I had often felt restricted by school rules, customs or norms when I worked as an instructor for large eikaiwa or as an ALT in Japan.
I longed for the days when I would branch out on my own and have free rein to do my own thing.
Now I have it and let me tell you, sometimes it’s fantastic.
Then there are times when it is tremendously terrifying.
Before we go any further, I’d like to explain what free rein means.
First, reins are the leather straps that allow a person to control a horse by pulling on them.
If a rider or wagon driver lets go of the reins, they no longer control the horse(s).
This gives the animal(s) free rein to do whatever they want.
If a person is given free rein, they are free to say or do whatever they like.
Often there is no rhyme or reason why things are done a certain way other than they have always been done that way.
At one school I worked at, recording an oral examination for the mid-term and final exams was an ordeal.
We used outdated technology operated by a ‘specialist.’
The school recording studio had to be booked when the specialist and all voice actors (teachers) were available.
Then it took hours and hours to record onto a tape.
I complained vociferously, and the teachers gave me free rein to record it my way.
I used an iPod to record all the parts which required a single voice whenever I had the time.
If conversations needed to be recorded, it was done whenever a teacher had a few spare moments.
Instead of taking hours to accomplish, a 20-minute test took 30 minutes to record.
Giving someone free rein may result in progress and a new way of doing things.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 76.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.