Casting A Spell

Newcastle Herald

Saturday May 6, 2006

HELEN KAPALOS

Grammar. Gotta luv it. Schloppy eg's of cut'n

corners seems to exist everywhere in our

language these days, thanks to many things I

suspect.

Advertising slogans luv to use the shortened form of

a word, or the American spelling ... no doubt to appear

KOOL. Ever tried a Krispy Kreme? That's the latest US

donut shipment .. or is that doughnut?

Computer tools such as spellcheck have a lot to

answer for, too (especially when you consider that most

PCs automatically adopt the US dictionary).

Texting is another classic example of how language

has changed. I still struggle decoding some messages.

Gr8 2 C U looks more like a foreign number plate. And

more often than not, and this is a teenage special, entire

sentences are constructed this way.

Maybe our kids have ADD (Attention Defi cit Disorder

in case you didn't recognise the acronym) but providing

they understand each other and as long as it doesn't

impede their communication, then schweeet.

Or maybe not. The building blocks of language, The

fundamentals of how to speak and read, are supposed

to be taught at school from day one. Personally I would

have struggled without those grammatical foundations

because of my non-English speaking background.

Kids are sponges, so thankfully it didn't take long to

catch on.

It's obvious that literacy means different things to

different people. In recent years the rave has been to

focus on the ideas of the student, with less importance

given to the correct use of past and present tense, of

verbs, nouns and adjectives. And while there may be

merit in that point of view, others will argue that an

'ideas only' focus comes at the cost of constructing a

sentence properly.

There's also a lot to be said for the way English is

taught. Good teachers can make all the difference. And it

only takes one.

I had a high school teacher, Chris Bush, who brought

alive texts that would have otherwise read as foreign.

It was obvious he was fascinated with how the written

word came to be composed in the fi rst place. His

literary passion and love of writing were infectious. It's

interesting that quite a few of his students went on to

pursue successful careers in the arts.

The PM's comments in recent weeks have fuelled the

debate over what kids should or should not read at

school, and whether Post Modern literature is 'rubbish'.

To be or not to be? And how much of the syllabus

should feature the classics.

Understanding the origins of language gives us context

today. Shakespeare and co were onto something. Their

language still speaks volumes today. We even use their

words to lift our spirits, in affi rmations like 'To thine

own self be true' 'Just be yourself' just doesn't quite

have the same ring to it.

And for kids who may have been led to believe the

classics are a little droll, don't forget that some of Willy

Shakespeare's works contain more sexual innuendos,

crime and corruption than an episode of Desperate

Housewives.

It's true that you won't see many people reading

Dickens and Chaucer on the bus and train on their way

to work. Rather, their choice of fiction is more likely to

be Harry Potter. But that's not to say classics don't have

a place in our language today.

Mark Twain defined a literary classic as 'something

that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to

read'.

If classics aren't relevant today then why do they

still fill our bookshelves and continue to exert such a

powerful influence on contemporary culture like films. I

guess the point is they are still around because, like it or

not, they still challenge and inspire us. It makes you think

really.

© 2006 Newcastle Herald

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