By Ralph Fletcher

 

I was interested in this story because of the title.  As I read this essay, I could see myself trying to pull off some of the ideas in my future classroom, such as having the students talk about their favorite words.  I think that challenging students to stretch their vocabulary is extremely important.  The saying, Knowledge is Power is a perfect reason to try to develop a students vocabulary.  As I read this essay, I couldn't help but remember spending time with one of my childhood friends sitting around the dinner table listening to "the Tandy's" have a feast on vocabulary words.  If they didn't know what something was, or what it meant, they would pull out the encyclopedia, or the dictionary and learn.  Learning, that is what the love of words is all about.  I enjoyed the writers desire to use words in powerful ways.  My hope is that I will help my future students to develop a love for words and using those words for constructive things rather than destructive things.  With that said, Word up.

 

This essay was remarkable.  I found myself thinking about how I was raised and how I can raise my own children to look at people as people, not boy or girl, black or white, big or small, just another person.  Respect.  Deborah Tannen put the head on the nail when she pointedly illustrated how students in her classroom taught tolerance, acceptence and openness to the value of others.  The power of students learning these ideals at a young age, and then when a new students enters the fold, the students implore these ideals into their lives.  It truly goes to show that a child will learn what is modeled, either in the home or in the classroom.  If parents aren't modeling certain values that I expect in my classroom, then I will try to impress these values on them as a whole.  No, I do not what to indoctrinate them to have negative attitudes, but rather indoctrinate them with the kinds of attitudes that will help them to become better citizens of the planet earth.