Monday, August 28, 2017

Don't Write Off Your English Teacher

Each year in school, students spend considerable time studying language arts. We pay a great deal of attention to this in early grade levels, but by high school, enrollment in yet another English class becomes rather rote to a student. To the adolescent, doesn’t that just mean they have to read more books written by some dead people? They can already speak, listen, read, and write. What else is there to do? Well….
This is where I see a lot of school high school students failing to see the value of what a class can give to them. They are right in that hopefully by high school they can communicate with others with just fine. However, this is the opportunity for them to hone their ability to communicate and become so much better at it.
This is particularly true in the area of writing, or composition, I should say. Composition is the basis of all our communication regardless of how we deliver it. Whether we are texting with friends or presenting at a formal work meeting, we spend tremendous amounts of mental energy in the art of crafting the messages we want to convey and high school is a time when we can really grow in our ability to do this.
I’m not so sure teenagers have a strong grasp on the quantity of important composition adults do on a daily basis. When I was in high school, I certainly didn’t consider the fact I would end up as a high school counselor sending countless emails a day, meeting with parents to discuss the struggles their students are having, texting families answers to college admissions questions, drafting recommendation letters to colleges and scholarship committees, and then writing about it all for you to read here!  Here I am though in a state of constant composition, and I consider myself fortunate to have been blessed with some high school teachers who valued teaching me how to communicate the right way.
It is difficult to quickly see development in language arts. It’s not like math or science where one day you don’t know what osmosis is and the next day you do. Learning language arts is a gradual process and it takes perspective to see improvements. As a high school student progresses, they learn more vocabulary, they have a better understanding of grammar, they read good writing and know what it looks, they become enlightened by the things they read, and learn how to find and research the things they don’t know. Language arts students develop a more mastered control of their language and therefore are better at communicating with the rest of the world.

So, my point here is don’t blow off your high school English class. Instead, embrace it as an opportunity to enhance the skill you’ll use more than any other for the rest of your life. Soak up the lessons from your English teachers and work with a mindsight that even if you “speak English just fine,” you can always get better. Who knows what you’ll need to say one day?