Use Your Words

words

Big Funny Kid has always had a great vocabulary and has always been very articulate. 

His first word was "Apple".  Not dada, not mama...."Apple".

He quickly came up with the phrase "Apple Doo Doo" to describe the grocery store.  I have no idea why.  (I was just glad he was talking because all that crying and grunting was NOT working out for me.)

Shortly after that he was saying "Nguyen Nguyen Tuck" for garbage truck.

Again - I had no problem adapting to his vernacular. 


As he progressed to the Toddler Phase he would have occasional, yet typical, Toddler Meltdowns.  And that is when I introduced the phrase "Use Your Words."

I occasionally *STILL* have to say that to him.

And, yes,  he occasionally has to say it to me.

I bring this all up because I spent a great deal of my day and night working on my upcoming "Instruction for English as a New Language" course which is going to be INTENSE while finding out at Parent/Teacher  Conferences that Big Funny Kid received a......uh......NOT good grade in French.


ARE YOU KIDDING ME???????  

sigh

And yet this is not my point.

I need to use my words.

Bi-lingual students (either by choice or by circumstance) are going to have a HUGE advantage in their lives, if they have teachers that will help them to embrace their unique situation..  Language is integral all human endeavors.Under the right circumstance if a student speaks one language at home, can perform academically in another language and has the right supportive environment........then......


:

(Image from NASA).

There is no limit to what can happen!

We are a Global Community.  We are part of a Participatory Culture.  Language is the ethos that binds us together.


In other words:

The world is a wonderfully weird place, consensual reality is significantly flawed, no institutions can fully be trusted, certainty is a mirage security is a delusion, and the tyranny of the dull mind forever threatens.

Use. Your. Words.

(preferably without harm).