One of my obsessions

I love the English language. Indeed I love French and German too, and Biblical Hebrew. [I wish I had more years left to get into the language of our near neighbours]. So I am always more than a little interested in language curriculum (I have blogged quite a lot about this before..here. Some of it even seems vaguely intelligible).

We must not allow ourselves to be seduced (yet again) by an easy solution. Manageable though it may be, the teaching of English is not (only) about getting your apostrophes right. (You're apostrophes right. Your apostrophe's right. Your apostrophes' right!) It is also about being able to teach people to communicate effectively, and how to evaluate language based materials.

In a world, for example, where a changed sexual morality bombards the airwaves...at what point do we show people that there is a need to critique what so often are presented as givens.

(Watch British TV drama "Skins", for example, ...a very well-written drama purporting to be the experience of ordinary kids...very popular with young people...and see if you think the attitudes to violence, drugs, alcohol and sex are simply neutral! Do they represent the real world, are they the sorts of value we think are appropriate)