Teaching Language in our Schools: Let's get it "Write"!

In this day and age, abbreviations and acronyms are becoming more and more common in the workplace, about town, at home, and in our schools.  Each generation has their own “language” of sorts that people of other ages cannot fully grasp.  There’s the groovy slang from the 70s, the punk lingo from the early 90s, and a new, emerging language from the texting and instant messaging generation that includes just about any child from age five to age eighteen.  Some adults can listen to two youngsters have a conversation and have no idea what is going on, which can be a little scary...

 While it is important for society to keep up with the new communication trends of our children, it’s also vital that we teach traditional methods of language learning in our schools.  Writing and reading have traditionally been at the core of the curriculum of any school and are important elements of a child’s education.  Some would argue that the jobs of tomorrow won’t really require their employees to have good writing skills (especially with the constant technology booms going on).  However, I really think that writing is an art that will always be cherished--- and needed by society.  We need language to survive--proper language that is.  

Traditional writing and print media may be trends of the past, but thats why we love them.  There’s nothing quite like walking to the end of the driveway on a Sunday morning to get the paper or picking up the latest edition of your favorite magazine.  Writing offers us comfort and sometimes makes us feel a little nostalgic, whether we think back to writing creative stories in grammar school or sitting on our Dad’s lap as a child while he read the latest sports section.  Writing is not something that will “die out”, whether we’re talking about print or web media. Blogging on the web may be a little more of a relaxed form of media, but it’s still important that our students have the traditional foundations in the subject of writing in order to blog, tweet, or plurk.   

Writing is also informative and relays information to the world regarding just about anything.  There is going to be a high demand for our children to fill the shoes of professionals in the fields of public relations, advertising, and writing.  We need to enable them with the necessary skills to do this.  This is the responsibility of our schools and parents.  So, lets keep the curriculum well-rounded and keep the subjects of writing and reading at the core.  And parents, maybe that second bedtime story is a good idea after all.  Keep in mind that a child who can read well can also write well.  And I’m not talking about writing a text to their BFF about the latest OMG drama.  I am talking about the good ‘ol traditional way of writing that we have historically loved and craved as a social means of communication.  So, let’s encourage it and teach our children about this amazing, informative art that can really enable them to do great things, whether they end up being the next New York Times best-selling author or working in a science lab.  A child needs good language skills in order to survive no matter what their future goals may be.