These pages are a work in progress as I transcribe my notes from WORKS to HTML, enjoy.
3 IDEAS
Today everyone's writing books about what schools should teach our children.
One popular idea that concerns this book is the high sounding theory that children should study a foreign language - some colleges require 2 years of foreign language for entrance. Certainly, this is a great idea for children planning a career in foreign service; but, what about the non-diplomats, the non-international businessmen, the non- college bound?
The question is, Should they spend hours, memorizing vocabulary lists and conjugating verbs? And, which language should they study? And, what's the educational value of it all? My own experience with 4 years of a textbook taught foreign language was painful, humiliating and worthless. The truth of the matter is, the only real way to learn a language, or anything for that matter, is to use it. Strictly speaking, this would mean that those who want to learn a foreign language should go to that country and live there.
So, what's my point? Well, actually, this is my first idea, but first I would like to tell you some interesting facts:
Americans, who are faced with de-industrialization, de-agriculturalization, dwindling assets, over-crowded classrooms, and tight curriculums, I have an idea which I'd like you to consider. But, first, permit me to list a few pertinent facts: Did you know that
there are more people in China learning to speak English than there are people in America who can speak it.
when a banker from Sweden makes a deal with an industrialist from Mexico, they both speak English
half of the world's newspapers and 80% of the world's computer data are in English
air traffic controllers the world over use English
English is the most developed language on earth, thanks to America's technical superiority?
In other words, if English is the language of the world, why don't we spend more time teaching our children English'! Give our children more time to learn English.
Sir Winston Churchill who repeated English grammar said that the extra year was decisive.
THE SUN NEVER SETS ON THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
The truth of the matter is that after 12 years of school, our children are weak in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar skills. This means that to correct this weakness we must scope. sequence and teach for mastery. We must fill our language with simple formulas so that parents and teachers can say,
Child, you must learn this before you can learn that. And, if you don't learn this, then you must remain where you are until you do (just like Winnie).
My third idea is that some brilliant mind should rationalize the English language to meet modern communication needs. For example, the words used to label and explain grammar ideas are stilted, vague and archaic. Many of the rules for capitalization, punctuation and grammar are stopgap solutions to centuries of accretion. The alphabet and our phonics systems do not correspond:
Honestly now, which To, Too, Tew, Tue spells two?
America's lack of a phonetic alphabet costs taxpayers billions of dollars to teach 3 subjects: reading, writing and spelling. In the future, children of the world will master reading, writing and spelling at home and the fundamentals of grammar in Third Grade.
American children could begin tomorrow.
Summary:
Spend more time studying our English language.
Scope, sequence and teach English for mastery.
Rationalize the English language.
CAUTION: THIS SYSTEM OF GRAMMAR IS SEQUENCED. YOU MUST BEGIN ON PAGE 1