The Decline of The English Language

I love writing.  I have for a long time.  Ever since grade 12 English classes were I got to start choosing some of my own source material for essays.  It's so much more satisfying to write about something you're actually interested in, than to have to write about some boring, curriculum determined subject.  I like to write in all kinds of styles.  I love, LOVE children's lit.  I love poetry, (all different styles), I love essays.  Fiction and non-fiction.  I love writing funny stuff, which hopefully is reflected in this blog.  I love that the action of writing something out, and reading it, and editing it, really makes a person absorb and mull over what it is they are trying to say.  When we write something, we tend to spend a lot more time and thought expressing ourselves, than we do when we are just talking.  All the better to avoid putting ones foot in their mouth!

I have really been paying attention to my own kids writing as they go through school.  For the most part it has been pretty abysmal.  Spelling is egregious.  When I was a kid I remember have a spelling test every week with about 15 words that I had to practice as homework.  Neither of my children has had a spelling test since World Wall Words in the first grade.  William may have had some french dictee words in third grade, but that's the last I can remember.

Punctuation is non-existent.  My 7th grader still doesn't always use capitals and periods.  CAPITALS AND PERIODS!!  I'm not talking advanced editorial punctuation here!  Commas?  What are those??  Paragraphs?  Not in their writing.  I think, by 7th grade, a student should have a pretty good understanding of the make up of an essay; opening, supporting arguments, conclusion.   He has done "presentations" in front of his class that required him to do research, take notes, make cue cards, create a bristol board backdrop with one or two sentence blurbs of information, but nothing that required him to actually sit down and write a cohesive, paragraphed, grammatically correct paper on any given subject.  I 'm pretty sure he knows of these concepts, but he has written precisely zero essays so far in his school career.   With one exception.

In 6th grade my son's class was given the option, (THE OPTION!!!) of preparing a speech to present in front of their peers.  You can guess how many kids actually took on this task.  I told my son he was doing it.  There was no way he wasn't doing it.  Aside from reading, writing and math, one of the most important life skills you will ever learn is how to speak effectively in public.  When I was in grade school we had to do a speech every year starting in grade 2.  Not optional. My first speech was about my teddy bear Buford.  I brought him with me for moral support because I was terrified.  I was so painfully shy I would run and hide when company came over.  By fourth grade, I was winning awards for public speaking.  Having the ability to speak in front of a crowd has benefited me in all aspects of my life.

In order for my son to present his speech, first he had to write it.  Finally he got to put his knowledge of the process into action.  This is how skills are developed, through doing, again and again and again.

Creative writing has been coming home more often this year.  My 7th grader was given the following assignment; write a descriptive paragraph about a character or scene from the movie, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas".  He chose to describe a scene, the only problem was he did not understand the difference between a "scene" and the "scenery".  He wrote out a minute by minute account of everything that happened during a certain part of the movie.  Fail.  No, literally, he failed.  We tried the assignment again at home.  He was gobsmacked when I explained to him that a "scene" and the "scenery" were two different things.  He decided he wanted to describe the character of the Grinch.

Here's how it went:

Me:  What colour is he?

Alex:  Green.

Me:  What shade of green?  Green like what?

Alex:  Um.  Green like old pea soup.

Me:  Is he smooth, hairy, scaly?

Alex:  Duh.  He's hairy mom.

Me:  What is the texture of his hair?  Is it soft? Scratchy? Wiry? Thick?  Thin?

Alex:  It was thick and rough.

Me:  Like?

Alex:  Like old strips of leather.

Me:  Oooooo!  Good one!

And on and on it went.  What are his eyes like, his lips, his teeth, his feet, his toenails.  Does he smell?  It was this process that taught him how to actually describe something.   I was absolutely blown away by the depth of his descriptions in his next writing assignment.  It was fantastic.  I thought we were turning a corner, and then he brought home his latest writing assignment.

His class had just finished reading, The Outsiders by S. E Hinton,

This is a fantastic story with tremendous depth of character and emotion.  He was given a list of about 6 events that happened in the story and told to pretend he was a character in the story and to write out how he would react or respond to these situations, by tweeting.

Tweeting

I wanted to scream.  Is this were we are going to let things go?  To Tweetsville?  140 characters or less to express the emotional heartbreak of a close friends death, or a buddy getting beat up outside a movie theater?  Really?  What was the point of this exercise?  This could have been an amazing opportunity for these students to practice expressing emotion through writing, but instead, Alex produced this Pulitzer winning gem:

"Just found out my buddy got jumped outside the movies. Gonna go kick some Greaser butt. #dieGreasers, #Soc'srule!"

Dear sweet Jesus.  It's times like this that I seriously question why I didn't home school.  This was a marked assignment!  He got a B.  #sobummed.

So what can we do about this?  Well, I don't know!  I'm not a teacher.  I don't make the curriculum.  I don't mark the papers.  My kids would have a collective stroke if I tried to home school them now!  I know!  I'll go on my blog and craft a well written post about the failures of the education system and that will make me feel better.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!  That's better!

Peace out!

PS.  I am sure a professional editor would crucify me for my use of quotation marks for emphasis and uppercase for anger along with many other grammatical sins.  #nobodysperfect