Language Study #1: clear, full expression

First in a series about what students ideally learn to do through language study in schools.
In July 2002, I hand-wrote the first six of the series in a MiniComp notebook (6 x 31/2"), limiting each mini-essay to one page front and back.  For numbers seven through ten, I have just the topics.

 

Ideally, students learn to express themselves clearly and fully.

Children, teenagers no less than other children, need to be understood. Even adults who have lived together, talked together for years, struggle to express themselves clearly to one another. Writing instruction during the teenage years gives students focused work on consciously narrowing the gap between emotions, thoughts and perceptions on the one hand and verbal expression on the other. Our ideas and feelings are constantly changing. The process of expression does not apply to a static content longing for effective form. What does remain steady is the challenge of identifying and articulating one’s perceptions and interpretations at any given moment. The specific nature of the moment changes, but not the general chemistry. In this sense, verbal expression always contains an artistic quality. “How best to capture my view” is the writer’s question. That same question moves, for example, Eiko and Koma in their performance piece, “The Offering,” last night in Battery Park City, across West End Avenue from the World Trade Center site. The artists’ tools included: orange-yellow artificial light (morning-sun color); an altar of sticks, earth and flame; human movement and poses of three dancers—two Japanese and one East Indian; and music of a clarinet. The writer also has tools, a vision and an audience. Teenagers need regular practice with various tools, in order to express their vision to a particular audience.
July 2002