Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

There is a perceptible effect in my domain, high school literature. The article is quite on-target with my experiences. Adolescents know that texting is forbidden at school, yet I routinely catch students texting in their backpacks or supposedly covertly under a desk. They often seem nonplussed when I tell them to put the mobile device away, as if I had deprived them of a basic right.

There is a large generation of kids growing up with text-messaging as a near-primary means of communication. Most of these youngsters do not differentiate text-messaging from regular communication. I see the results when students read: They are much less capable of sounding-out words, even simple graphemes, than students from ten years ago. Most high-schoolers that I have witnessed are atrociously poor writers, much less spellers. Although I am an advocate for a dynamic language, text-messaging and internet memes (i.e. "I kan has chezburger?") are not mere distractions but serious impediments to developing essential language proficiency. I try to teach some basics of a different language (Italian, Arabic, Russian) before each class in order to turn on the language part of students' brains, but in the past few years I have noticed that my students not only no longer try to learn different languages, they care even less about language in general than I have ever witnessed in my twenty-ish years as a professional educator.

Adolescents communicate through Facebook or text-messaging as if it were regular conversation. When they are face-to-face, it is interesting to hear them talk about what they "facebooked" or "texted" each other, not real-life things. Terms such as "creepers" emerge: This is not a vine-like plant but someone who reads Facebook posts without actively participating in chats. It belies a fundamental failure to discern between digital and actual communication. The prevalence of text-messaging and Facebook are not helping children grow up. Adults are often conscious of the risks associated with publishing personal details on the web, but adolescents are by and large not sophisticated enough to discern between private and public information. Most adolescents simply are not capable of using telecommunications effectively. For example, simple research skills are woefully nonexistent. When students use a computer to research something, they first type in the literal phrase into Google or Wikipedia and that is typically the extent of the research effort.

Sorry to rant, but anxiety over text-messaging (and Facebook use) is very real. Kids do get worked up over communicating digitally. It would be nice if they would meet in person and do more true communicating.

From my perspective, language acquisition skills have decreased in the past decade. I try to avoid generalizations because student populations vary year to year and from one location to another. National organizations such as the National Council for the Teaching of English publish e-newsletters on current topics in edumacasion (sic), and it does indeed appear that literacy overall has gone to the wrong end of the pear—but this is by conventional measurements. Given new, changing media and venues for communication, it merits investigation into whether what we used to consider "literacy" is still applicable. My own experience indicates that students are less capable of figuring out their own language than ever before. You would not have wanted to witness, for example, the carnage that was a simple test on pronouns with my eleventh graders, which came after studying use of pronouns for nearly three weeks straight.

I am a traditionalist insofar as language goes. Language acquisition and language inquisition work hand-in-glove, so to speak. It is one thing to shun provincial attitudes about different ideas (or languages), but it is another when kids simply do not care how well (or not) they use their lingua franca. This is indeed a worrying trend.

For the first time, children are achieving less than their parents once out of high school. This comes from academic studies, not me. Our species is not evolving much right now. Another issue that I alluded to previously is affective growth amongst teens. Adolescence is a time for trying out emotions and learning to work with the range of life's experiences, that is normal. Facebook and text-messaging separate adolescents from reality, and it worries me that the disconnect between action/reaction online and the same thing in person has increased. Simply put, kids seem less capable of dealing with other people nowadays than before. It is fairly well-conveyed that, my own peers, later Baby Boom parents are over-protective of children and shelter kids from valuable like experiences as children develop personalities. Thus the schism between reality and virtual reality has become further blurred.

Somewhat related to language (and more to do with virtual reality versus real-ality) is this clip from Nova:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3204/01.html

It just makes one wonder where we are going as a society given that we are a highly social species.

I knew texting was popular... but 80 messages a day? I've sent maybe 4 in the past week! Maybe I'm just not that popular.

I think we should bring back writing handwritten letters and snail mail. I bought a quill pen and ink recently so I could do just that -- really old school.

Perhaps we should look for new ways to get kids writing again. Essay quality suffers because most students have absolutely no connection to their writing assignments. In school the only papers I remember writing were about subjects I don't enjoy, or don't enjoy writing about. Now I write for a couple blogs with subjects that I love. I, fortunately, was not entirely scared away from writing and language as so many others are.

My, how times have changed is such a short time. In elementary school we had a computer lab of DOS machines and did some very basic word processing and typing practice, but handwriting was required most of the time till 6th grade for me. I still had horrible penmanship, but that was from a lack of effort I suppose. We definitely can't ask for quill pens to come back, I got one for the novelty value it has. But it makes me write slower and improves my penmanship, so maybe it's not such a bad idea.

What exactly are teachers doing differently now that they don't have time to grade papers? If the answer is faculty meetings, I wouldn't be surprised. The way schools are run now seem to get in the way of the education they are supposed to provide. I grew up thinking that teachers might want us to learn but schools don't, so I created my motto so that I didn't end up like all the other kids: "Don't let school get in the way of your education." I wanted to learn, dangit!

But "not enough time" is a lame excuse. Make time!

I am not a teacher, but I have been following some of the news because of the impact on our local schools.

In recent history, local public schools are caught between a rock and a hard place. The number of requirements and the amount of documentation mandated by the federal goverenment of public schools and of teachers has multiplied to many times the level of a decade or so ago. In the same period, the amount of funding received by the local school from the federal government has reduced to half or less. Because public education is mandated, but underfunded, the local communities must bear the financial burden. Some residents are buckling. Communities are shrinking, and funding is vaporizing. Quality of education suffers.

Ironically, when testing shows reduced quality, more paperwork must be generated.

I'm not sure of the solution, but it seems wrong that such elaborate requirements should be developed, but not paid for. Ultimately, we taxpayers are covering the cost. It's just cowardly of our federal government to create a diversion, and have the cost of federal requirements be covered by local taxes, rather than federal.

What you say is consistent with what I have pieced together. Costs are rising. New federal mandates are at least part of the cause of rising costs. State and local funding are being stressed by tremendously increasing obligation.

I have found that short, specific writing tasks related to studied literature, grammar, or vocabulary is more meaningful than weekly long essays.

Short writing tasks - one paragraph or one sentence - are good. We had plenty of those when I was a kid, in addition to the longer weekly writing assignments. But I hardly think that 100-200 words, which is maybe 3-5 paragraphs comprising an introduction, development, and conclusion, qualifies as a “non-meaningful, over-long essay,” for kids between age 9-13. Too often I have seen kids required to write only a few such essays over the entire school year, averaging only one essay every two months. That is far, far too little.

Modern students generally have very short attention spans in comparison to students from twenty years ago

I'd want to see the evidence for that before I accept it. I see “modern” kids demonstrating extraordinary attention spans - both mental and physical endurance - when engaged in video games, for example. And I'm not just talking about the wild and crazy video games that supercharge their adrenal glands.

modern students are generally quicker to find target elements or draw conclusions

I'm not sure what you mean by this, but in any case I'd want to see the evidence as well. I don't recall having any difficulty “drawing conclusions” when I was a kid. But you are right to point out that drawing conclusions more quickly is not necessarily better.

Back when I was in school, it was typical for teachers to make an in-class writing assignment comprising several pages. Educators now regard that tactic as wasted time, and I can confirm that it is the generally lazy teacher who continues such practices.

Again I'm not sure what you mean. Are you saying that lazy teachers require students to write several pages in class? Are they lazy because they don't have to teach while the students are writing? Anyway, I had to write most of my stories and essays at home, not in school. On the other hand, we did a significant amount of reading in class, both silent reading and listening to the teacher read. Is that also the mark of a lazy teacher?

Back in the day, the school day was generally less hectic, less structured, and less focused on mandatory assessments: Today, every minute in school is valuable and used as effectively as possible.

I don't know. I remember my school days as being very structured, always focused on an assignment. Either we were listening to the teacher or doing something. Other than recess and lunch, we didn't have breaks. Keep in mind, too, that class sizes were larger back then.

The typical family budgets its children's time almost to the minute.

That is true for many families that are serious about their kids' education, and some of them go too far. But there are plenty of families who allow their kids to waste many hours every day playing video games, pushing out school and physical activity, and even social activity.

I'm sure that story will come out when you get nominated for the Supreme Court.