Language is a most important factor in general education
because it is the crux of understanding. Throughout, the teaching process it is
worthwhile to remember that teaching calls for a child-centered, honest, and
healthy approach to language.
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| English Language |
Again,
language is a device for giving and receiving emotional responses - a function
we in school often forget or limit to love for trees and flowers or to
occasional bursts of patriotism.
But I am
saying, for I believe it intensely, that present-day living and understanding
of it comes first, and that usually we have taken a wasteful course by
beginning with the past and its lessons.
Mental
hygiene calls for a wholesome use of language. Schools do much to set up the
opposite attitude. By the very nature of the school, its experiences become a
standard of sort. Language used in school is characterized as “good” in
contrast to language which cannot be used in school. By our taboo on sex words,
on literature which deals frankly with life-experiences, and on discussion of
love and romance, we set up inhibitions and false values. Only by discussing
frankly and unemotionally vital matters can we develop individuals who use
language adequately and without embarrassment….Our people use [language]
timidly, haltingly. They fear to speak directly, call frankness vulgarity, fear
to discuss love, beauty, the poetry of life. They ban honest words and prefer
circumlocutions. The language teacher, the teacher of English, carries a goodly
share of responsibility for the mental hygiene of young people, in reality.
As training
for independent thinking and clear self-expression, how appropriate is it to
ask children to punctuate bad sentences some textbook-maker has written, or to
write endless papers on topics chosen by a teacher or committee?
Language is
a most important factor in general education because it is a vital, intimate
way of behaving. It is not a textbook, a set of rules, or a list of books.
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