To The American People (or anyone reading this blog entry), little is more important to me than proper use of the English language. As employers are finding out from our Text Generation (would that be "TXT GNR8RS"?), we American People are having a hard time with the English language these days. We can't interview well, it seems. A quick back story for you - as a former Language Arts teacher, I could have told anyone this years ago, because I could see it coming in the writing skills of many of my students. When I started getting answers to questions written in text speak, I knew we had a problem on our hands.
This may be a problem of epic proportion, and one that you may refudiate. (At least that one came up as wrong on the grammar checker...whew!) But Google it, if you will. Our young people - those who are graduating from high school and college - are vying for jobs in a shrinking world, and need to man up. So do we as adults, as their mentors, because it is up to us to show them the way. I may be a mama grizzlie (at least people have told me I look like a certain one), but I want to make sure that the generation in charge of taking care of me when I'm an old woman doesn't make a fail. It is up to us to provide for them the a-ha moment where they begin to understand and to believe that clear communication is vital to success (even in a STEM world). English Language Arts may not have the wow factor that other curricular areas, such as chemistry, have (seriously, how can words compete with cool chemical reactions?!), but now's the time when being an effective communicator could become viral. We could start the movement! Our young people, along with their thousands of BFFs, could begin to realize just how important communication among and between the generations really is (along with communication among and between different countries, cultures, etc. Think about it!).
Now, if you think this blog entry is replete with ridiculous information, you may just be right. However, if you see through the transparent layer to the real reason for writing, and find the entry pretty clever, well, thank you. I believe in living life to the fullest, and sometimes showing what a simple list can't: that the way we speak is indicative of the way we think...
... and I for one believe that we should be thinking deeply, figuring out solutions to problems that we haven't encountered yet by using the wisdom of those who have come before us, and communicating clearly our thoughts and opinions. I'm just sayin'...
(In this blog entry I have effectively weaved together all fourteen banished words from the 2011 Lake Superior State University Word List. It wasn't even hard to do, frankly, which makes the words on the list even more scary. I hope you received your mental stimulation for the day. I know I thoroughly enjoyed the process.)
