I find it bothersome when schools concentrate on one area of language at the exclusion of others. They strive for technical precision in some classes, while they preach aesthetics in others. It's rare that appreciation, beauty, history (or evolution, to tie in with other comments), and grammar are taught together, or at least related to one another in any meaningful way.
For instance, American schools might yammer on about the apostrophe for use in contractions and possessives. They attempt to explain the latter as a manner in which to shorten the phrase, "the _______ belonging to the ______." Uncommon, however, is the teacher who explains the possessive is itself a contraction, a remnant from Old English in which the suffix '-es' was appended to words.
Even more rare is the teacher who'll go beyond that as a mere, dry fact and engage the pupil's natural curiosity and sense of wonder. The realms of beauty, history, and identity which may be found in language may be hinted at, but they're usually not revealed.
It may well be a lack of time, an overcrowded classroom, or whatever obstacle-of-the-month an educator wishes to cite, but it results in a lack of engagement with, and connection to, language. It becomes just another tool among many, one that a person really doesn't have to care too much about. Disinterest ensues, wonderment is lost, and students (we) go on to grasp at all the other bright and shiny tools offered up by the educational establishment.
After all, it's much easier to drown out the intuition of a piece of oneself that's missing if the senses are dulled from overload; much easier to advance into the dazzles of technology if one doesn't have to admit it an intimate part of who and what he or she is.
TL;DR -
Language is an important part of being human. Evolution is unavoidable, but how much of our humanity do we want to slaughter? Perhaps this choice is ultimately the deciding factor between "progress" and "cancer."
For instance, American schools might yammer on about the apostrophe for use in contractions and possessives. They attempt to explain the latter as a manner in which to shorten the phrase, "the _______ belonging to the ______." Uncommon, however, is the teacher who explains the possessive is itself a contraction, a remnant from Old English in which the suffix '-es' was appended to words.
Even more rare is the teacher who'll go beyond that as a mere, dry fact and engage the pupil's natural curiosity and sense of wonder. The realms of beauty, history, and identity which may be found in language may be hinted at, but they're usually not revealed.
It may well be a lack of time, an overcrowded classroom, or whatever obstacle-of-the-month an educator wishes to cite, but it results in a lack of engagement with, and connection to, language. It becomes just another tool among many, one that a person really doesn't have to care too much about. Disinterest ensues, wonderment is lost, and students (we) go on to grasp at all the other bright and shiny tools offered up by the educational establishment.
After all, it's much easier to drown out the intuition of a piece of oneself that's missing if the senses are dulled from overload; much easier to advance into the dazzles of technology if one doesn't have to admit it an intimate part of who and what he or she is.
TL;DR -
Language is an important part of being human. Evolution is unavoidable, but how much of our humanity do we want to slaughter? Perhaps this choice is ultimately the deciding factor between "progress" and "cancer."