A Newspaper's Role in Education

Recently I posted about the poor grammar used by a worker at a local restaurant. A teacher today brought in a newspaper from the town where the Wendy's is located.

Here is a headline from the paper.

Utilities work to restore power
Some have went without electricity for five days

As the voice of the area, and the written daily record of history from the county, a certain level of responsibility might be expected with the proper use of the English language. However, the dialect from an area is bound to creep in, especially if writers for the paper grew up locally.

For the most part, lack of proper grammar is not a hindrance here. "Me and" and "we was" are not even noticed in most casual conversations. In fact, overcoming common usage is one of the biggest problems students face in language arts classes.

So this brings us to the question. What is a newspaper's role in education? Should a local paper's language reflect the area, or should they serve as an example to all readers.

Image from http://flickr.com/photos/drb62/2054107736/
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If a 12 Year Old Gets It, Why Don't You?

Constant controversy about spending on education, NCLB, and the value of technology in education controls the news media. In this Reading Workshop, one twelve year old brings it down to the most basic level.

Seth said:

I like typing on the wiki page because if I have something to say that's very exciting I can type it. I just finished a book called Soldier`s Heart and I couldn't tell my friend Dylan because he is reading the same book. I didn't want to spoil the ending for him so I am anxious to get it out. So I typed it on the wiki page and I felt relieved after that. I like this year because I'm using the computer more and having fun with it at the same time.

There are those who doubt the value of technology in our schools. They don't think the dollars spent are worth it. They believe schools should focus on the three R's. They want high test scores. They want students in their seat, being quiet, and doing their work. When they picture a class, they see the teacher in front lecturing, while students sit in their seats, taking it all in.

I say, please get out of your Model T. The Industrial Revolution is over. We are moving on. There is a new expert in town. His name is Seth and he is a twelve year old that knows what makes school and learning challenging and interesting.

The time to move on is here. Hey Jr. High, are you listening? We are sending you tech savy students that want to be challenged. Quit diagramming sentences and figure out how you are going to make learning meaningful for Seth.

Word Substitution

We worked collectively to figure out the meaning of a phrase from Coach John Wooden's Pyramid of Success. You can view the entire excerpt here.

This is the phrase we were working on:

I believe the players collectively looked for whoever was able to help the team most on any given night

We discussed that collectively was an adverb which may or may not be needed to understand the essay. I asked two questions:

1. What is the purpose of collectively in the sentence?
2. What word does collectively describe?

We looked at the root word, collect and talked about its meaning. According to Ask.com

1. To bring together in a group or mass; gather.
2. To accumulate as a hobby or for study.
3. To call for and obtain payment of: collect taxes

We decided that collectively tells how the players looked. The challenge when students left class, was to find a word to substitute that was easier to understand, but had the same meaning.