So many challenges in life can be met by effective communication.
Imagine, for instance, how history might have been different if
Winston Churchill's well-chosen words had not been heard in Britain
during those critical days of World War II, or if Upton Sinclair,
author of "The Jungle," had not brought to light unhealthy
conditions in American meat-packing plants that led to passage of
the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.
Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was the best-selling
book of the 19th century and helped Americans understand slavery as
they had not before. Words, well put together, can be a powerful
force for good or evil. Those who learn to use them well -- in
speaking and writing -- can greatly influence the actions of their
listeners and their readers.
Thus it becomes important that schoolchildren of today, those who
will be citizens of the world tomorrow, learn to communicate
effectively and to do so on a variety of platforms.
When schooling was less complicated, when the body of knowledge,
especially on the scientific front, was much smaller than it is
today, the mechanics of writing played a major role in classrooms
across the land. Current realities are different. Today, the demands
placed on teachers by an unrelenting public that expects student
achievement to be reflected in test scores make for a challenging
task, to say the least.
Taking all that into account, it should not have been a surprise
that many Florida students did poorly on the writing portion of the
state standardized test. Reports indicate that the low scores were
due largely to bad mechanics, misspellings, misuse of punctuation
and the like. Testing officials have indicated the ideas expressed
in the writing exercises appeared to be less problematic than the
structural issues, and educators have asserted that the changes to
the test were not communicated in time for them to adjust the
This situation brings up some troublesome questions. Should
educators feel their first priority is teaching to the test? If
their pay is going to be linked to student performance on these
tests, it is not surprising they would see it that way. Secondly,
has it become too difficult to teach students proper grammar,
sentence structure and spelling while at the same time emphasizing
the importance of putting thoughts together in a cogent manner?
Some have pointed to the Internet, to email and social media as
reasons that young people are not comfortable with the standard
rules of good writing, using instead the abbreviated, truncated
language of electronic messages. …