Expressing yourself or not really...
/Expressing Yourself
Every teacher’s groan zone is assessment uploads. It’s time for the arduous task of marking. Most of the time it’s actually a joy, to hear your student’s voices and hear about what they’ve been learning and how they’ve put it all together. You laugh at incorrect word choice (some trying out a thesaurus- the wrong way!), you smile at their turn of phrase and your heart melts at their beautiful thought evolution. Other times you’re plain disappointed at the lack of effort or understanding (read engagement in their learning). It runs the gamut of the teenage condition- evolving nicely into a beautiful human being to the ego-driven, button-pushing-just-for-the-exhilarating-hell-of-it clown.
Yup, it’s a roller coaster ride. And one I wouldn’t trade for anything on this earth.
Teaching Religious Education means I have the joyous job of teaching all the soft skills; teamwork (respect for each other, working with the nerd/weirdo they wouldn’t be seen dead with in the canteen), leadership skills (learning about their strengths and unique talents to raise their confidence and self worth), communication skills and emotional intelligence (how do you really feel- exploring the tough topics and getting them to respond from their authentic selves), flexibility (teaching about how others see the world and the importance of acceptance)… I challenge them at every turn. I push them and provoke them desperately trying to get them to think.
And I gotta say folks, I'm a bit despairing. I truly worry for this generation.
I hope I'm wrong. I hope I’ve forgotten how enmeshed I was in my own anus at the same age, happily (well actually I was a pretty miserable teenager) engrossed in the minutiae of my own miniscule world of high school and who liked who and who was hating on whom… So trying to draw the heads out of the current crop of pubescents butts is an onerous task and one leaving me with the conclusion that perhaps I need to disappear back up my own fundament and save my time and energy.
But I won’t. Because that’s not the way I roll. I'm passionate about education and young people if you haven’t guessed.
It’s pretty horrifying to read essays that run like texts- using ‘u’ (yes they do), coz, cause (because), and informal language that reads like they speak. That’s not the way of essay writing. And before you say what does it matter, let me explain.
It shows a distinct lack of thinking. It’s merely stream of consciousness and blurting out opinions. It clearly demonstrates that no research has been undertaken. They are so wrapped in the protocols of social media platforms that they cannot disengage nor discern audience, purpose or even genre which is imperative in communication, particularly in the world of employment that they’re hopefully heading for.
You don’t expect the CEO to address the staff in memos with “Yo, BTW u been spotted parking in the rong slots yeah?
Judgements are made. Employment status is threatened. Clear communication is so limited that it’s an oxymoron. You just have to watch Outer Banks (it’s to keep up with the kids in my class- honestly) to know that language, as always with each generation, evolves to the point that those outside that generation are honestly flummoxed. It’s like watching a mystery- only the enigma is what the hell the campfire chat scene actually disclosed rather than the plot. That’s nothing new, but the lack of social education is.
Here’s where I'm going. Language has evolved over thousands of years. We’ve moved from the protolanguage to the modern version. Only now we’re regressing.
“Protolanguage is generally characterised as having broad similarity to the language of young children and language trained apes: a confined vocabulary size, a focus on meanings related to concrete objects, actions, and attributes, and relatively free word order. Some theories have proposed that protolanguage was predominantly or entirely gestural (Corballis, 2017), but emerging consensus is that it was likely an integrated combination of speech and gesture, much like modern language (Kendon, 2017).”
And by gesture read emoji. Much of the social media world, including texts, is filled with emojis in lieu of actual words. It’s cute sure, but the whole regressing of language is becoming endemic.
I can’t tell you how many times in a lesson I have to ask if the kids know what a word means, and find they’ve no clue. They don’t read books any more. And I know that sounds like I'm being an old fuddy duddy (what the hell’s that miss?) but reading exposes you to a wide vocabulary. They don’t read.
When I were a young ’un when the teacher wheeled in the trolley with the television set on it, we were beside ourselves with joy that we’d be watching a movie. Do you know what the reaction is now? A groan (not about the tv – we have smart screens) but about the time. “How long does this go for?” 6 minutes. SIX MINUTES and they were complaining. They have the attention spans of gnats and I am not joking in the slightest. I have to leap around the classroom and change topics every 5 minutes with them to keep them engaged. Asking them to have a discussion on ANYTHING, even themselves, and you’d think I’d sprung a pop quiz on them about chromosomal disorders or a Scriptural analysis of Leviticus.
“A language is not just words. It’s a culture, a tradition, a unification of a community, a whole history that creates what a community is. It’s all embodied in a language.” Noam Chomsky
It frightens me because this lack of vocabulary is turning point in their own growth and ability to express themselves.
When young people don’t engage in their own culture- or rather, limit their ‘culture’ to that of their peer group, not much is learned. There is no link to history and its lessons, the knowledge of elders, the value of traditions through rituals. In addition, as Manoush Zomorodi says, the imagination of young people is being seriously eroded- stuck on platforms and games all day- they are merely engaging with someone else’s imagination or agenda. There is little face to face communication- most young people don’t like making phone calls. They tell me it increases their anxiety. Without the cues of facial and physical gestures, the nuance of communication is lost. I notice too that social etiquette is vanishing; they have trouble holding a conversation, difficulty composing sentences, too used to speaking in the staccato bursts of emojis and cliches of the digital world. It’s like they can’t speak without their thumbs.
It’s impacting their thinking in that they’re not given time to think. Just consider when you go to the GP - the waiting room has a tv on and often a radio or piped music as well. When you go to a bar, the same; various screens and distractions around a place created for socialisation… Kids are bombarded with stimulus from womb to room. When walking round the lake the other day I saw the picture perfect family; mum, dad, babe in pram, dog walking toddler. Lovely. Out the in nature. Engaging with the world. And then the toddler gets tired so mum puts the toddler in the pram as well and hands him an ipad.
Wait, what? Or more importantly, WHY?
By the time we get them, they’ve got what looks like a genetic modification- a white growth on their ears so they resemble AI’s, listening to music, or watching YouTube on their phones. One funny snippet, music clip or viral video to the next without respite. They do not know how to entertain themselves. And again, I'm not being a fuddy duddy- it actually matters.
This constant bombardment of stimulus drains the brain’s processing ability. It makes kids tired and the brain has difficulty staying on target for long if they are listening to music, checking email, replying to texts all while supposedly working on assignments. Apparently there is no such thing as multi tasking (see Zomorodi above).
And what upsets me the most is that it is severely reducing their capacity to express themselves at their deepest level. So the most awe inspiring sunset is met with a “Cool”. Or the love of their life with a “she’s blaze”. In reducing their ability to express themselves they are shrinking their own world. Language opens up the world to the nuances of life and experience. Don’t forget we think in terms of language. I believe for example, that it’s the source for much violence in men- the inability to express themselves adequately leading to frustration and acting out because they don’t feel they’re being heard. Because they’re not. Because what they say is incomprehensible, simplistic and riddled with meaningless cliches or garbled adages gleaned off memes.
I think about that time I spent in Germany with a German family who didn’t speak English and all I had was the school girl version of their language. Communication was difficult to say the least. Our topics were reduced to the mundane because I simply didn’t have the capacity to wax lyrical with them about astronomy or American politics. Our conversations were cheapened to “yummy Nordhessische Ahle Wurscht, thanks.”
If you can’t express yourself to any great degree, you’re left with the risk of assumed understanding. “I know what you mean.” Do you? How can you know what I'm experiencing/thinking? Because even I don’t know because I simply don’t have the language to even articulate it to myself.