"Materialism is the idea that material things actually exist."
Ha, I love the way you put this! A great lead into a very interesting piece.
One thing that strikes me here, is how big a part language really does play in our perception of reality. For example, somebody once told me the story of a train that nearly crashed, in a country where the word 'if' simply did not exist. When they asked somebody on the train what would have happened if it had crashed, they couldn't comprehend the question. They could only answer "But it didn't - I am not sure what you are asking". The fact that we have the word 'if' in our language, to represent a hypothetical scenario that may or may not, has or has not, happen(ed), opens us up to a whole new spectrum of perception and understanding. Just those two letters.
It's interesting to think that English is still young. Will we realistically ever reach a common language, though? I believe we will. But remember, people have already tried to engineer that and it failed spectacularly.
You talk about schools, and words, and I'm reminded of one final comment I'd like to add here. Dictionaries are not rule books, as many people assume. They are currently reflections of how we, as a society, are currently using language. The dictionaries do not define how we speak; the way we speak defines how the dictionaries are written. Remember that, and don't be afraid of thinking outside of the box to express your own perception of reality.