Recently, a parent brought me a sample of an essay she had written when she was in Grade 8. We compared it to the work of her Grade 8 son. The difference was amazing! Her essay contained no spelling or grammatical mistakes, was well organized with its ideas were clearly presented. Her son’s project wandered. It suffered from spelling, grammatical, and organizational mistakes. It was interwoven with passages which obviously he had copied from a textbook. Thirty years had passed since this mother had been in Grade 8. What has happened?

The answer can be found not only in programs such as reading, which does not teach grammar or structure, but also with programs that encourage creative spelling and free-form writing without editing or correcting mistakes. These disastrous mistakes have produced students who do not know the difference between a noun and a verb and who cannot write or think clearly.

Those of us over 40 years of age remember ‘English Grammar’ classes with varying degrees of satisfaction or fear and loathing; however, not only did we learn the parts of speech, but during those classes we also learned to write and think. Our thoughts had to be expressed clearly. It was unacceptable merely to fill a page with writing and hand it in. Our teachers demanded excellence! We had to try our hardest. The result of those old programs was that we learned to express ourselves in writing. This clarified our thinking and improved our comprehension. This taught us to think, to integrate, to understand and to explain.

WAIT! If that is true, then what about the claims made by the ‘progressive educators’ of the day! They said that those ‘old style classes’ were dull, mindless repetitions of memorized material that was completely divorced from the ‘new reality’ of the child’s life. Starting about 40 years ago, ‘progressive educators’ claimed that those classes were reductionistic and did not teach the “whole child.” They drummed structured classes right out of the school curriculum.

I don’t want you to think that I completely endorse those old grammar classes. In fact, I think that they were not an overly effective method of teaching writing skills. Teaching writing should be an integral part of every subject not simply reserved for a ‘Grammar Class’. Students should spend time writing in history, geography and science classes. Even math class is an opportunity for students to write!

When a student can explain in writing what the math teacher is trying to teach, you can be sure that the student understands the principle. Writing is more important than memorizing formulas or equations! When a student is capable of clearly explaining a concept in writing, that student has demonstrated that he/she understands the concept and, consequently, will not have to memorize it. For example, in history class, if we crammed less ‘stuff’ into our students’ heads, such as dates, times, and names, and asked them instead to understand, integrate and explain the process (the reasons for the sequence of events, the probabilities of other events being affected and the relationship that the events being studied have to previous and subsequent events), we would have well-grounded students who actually understood what they were learning.
And there is a bonus! In addition to better educated students, we would have motivated and happier students who could see some relationship between what they are studying and the world they are living in. That’s real motivation!

(Excerpt from PASSIVE MINDS! The Dangers of Education!! by Dr. R. N. Whitehead, Director, Oxford Learning Centres®)

Article & Spelling Test provided by: OXFORD LEARNING CENTRES