Our Crazy Language
Still in niece-land, I've been able to see the stages of life development up close over the last few weeks. Those who are further along will always chuckle over those behind, much as they might love them; they just can't help it.I've also been thinking about a more specific area of development; soon I will be teaching a writing class again. Most of the students are woefully underdeveloped, and thousands of people have thought and written about how to bridge the gap between their capabilities and ours. Being a good writer doesn't necessarily qualify someone to be a writing teacher, just as being a successful adult does not make one a good parent.
Here are some examples of the things I must decide how to address, culled from last semester's papers and reproduced here with exactly the spelling, punctuation, and capitalization in which they originally appeared:
- "[W]ithout sports where would all these successful athletes be?"
- "As you know, Money can make or break the economy."
- "America seems to be stuck in the mid-evil times when it comes to team sports."
- "Most role models have a lot of the some characteristics that the fans can see Tiger Woods is a prime example of a food role model."
- "Women try just as hard as men do and I think they should get exposed just as much as the men."
Sports wasn't the only topic we used last semester, but it certainly was the winner in producing good quotes.
These aren't just i-before-e kinds of issues. They are much harder to explain. In fact, I'm not sure whether it is possible to produce comprehension in every situation. For the next four months and possibly longer, however, it is my job to try. Toward that end I must continue to laugh at myself and my students. Like in skiing, a good sense of humor is the only preservative from misery in education.
posted by Lynn @ 1:36 PM
3 Comments:
"You whore of a generation! How long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to me!"
--The Gospel According to Saint Mark, Chapter 9
Reading your students' examples had me beating my head against a wall. I almost began a diatribe about kowtowing high school English teachers who fob off their athletes' grades as "passing" and other small-town politics where things are decided by the threat of a frothing-at-the-mouth mob of parochial troglodytes . . . but I won't go there. *counts to ten*
Keep laughing. Happy Epiphany.
That's so funny. It reminds me of the end-of-the-semester list of quotes we got from Dr. Coppinger's class. Thats good stuff. Hope all is well. You're in my thoughts and prayers.
Wow, those are too similar to those English review papers. Pretty funny!
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