Me Talk Pretty One Day

We've talked a lot about language in class, and we've also talked a lot about learning. But we haven't really talked much about learning a language, which is a whole subject on it's own. Today in class we read Me Talk Pretty One Day, which presented an interesting take on learning.
My mom personally teaches languages, so I couldn't help but compare her to the teacher described in the story. The teacher is harsh and downright verbally abusive, but she makes her students determined to impress her.

So, eventually they learn to understand French. My mom is honestly really chill-she thinks learning a language should be fun. We learn how to speak phrases and how to understand conversations. Maybe, because she's so nice, people don't always take the class as seriously, but they don't cry to themselves at night.
Clearly there is more than one way to learn a language, but no matter how you learn it, what language you learn, or when you study it, there will be one thing in common with students: self doubt.
I find that teens especially already doubt their actions and are anxious about always being perfect. Switching to a new language, making mistakes, and sounding dumb make students reluctant to actually take on a foreign language. I don't think the teacher in the essay was particularly good at her job. Though the author figured out what she was saying, maybe the Polish Annas didn't. And for such a strict disciplinarian on proper verb tense, her students had awful grammar when they were speaking. But I do think a message can be taken from this.
The author felt dumb and anxious about speaking in public, because "I was convinced everything I was saying was wrong." He thought because his speaking wasn't perfect, he wasn't learning. Though his teacher certainly treated him as if he had to be perfect, her main goal was for him to understand. That is learning.

We Aren't Flawed-It's the System

I'll be the first one to say that the American school system is deeply flawed. There are some things I enjoy about it-I like being able to join clubs, and to be able to go back to college if I wanted to. But that doesn't mean I like it. I don't think anyone does.
People are surprised when I say I don't like school. They usually ask why. I think I'm wasting my time, and then they ask what I think I should be doing.
I'm not sure, exactly. But I think sitting in school for eight hours a day isn't that. And I don't think for eight hours are helping me figure out what I should be doing. The American school system doesn't work for it's students. And while I think the article we read in class today addressed that, I also think it was really pretentious-for all the ideas, it promoted no way to transform those ideas into reality.
Leon Botstein, author of Let Teenagers Try Adulthood probably has no kids or grand kids in school at the moment. He proposes that because high school focuses so much on social development, not mental growth, teenagers are left feeling empty when high school ends (What now?) or unsure of what to do with the future (How am I supposed to be an adult?)
Truth is, I don't think that anybody really knows how to be an adult. Some people go to the best schools around and get into the best universities, and they still forget to pay a bill every once in a while, or accidentally spill coffee on their shirt, or are late to meetings. The tasks we see as adult jobs can really only be learned through trial and error, not through school.
Does that mean that schools shouldn't prepare teens and children for the future? Of course not. I think that there should be more of an emphasis on finding a career and college planning. But I don't think the focus should be to become a perfect adult, because to be honest, I'm sure most "adults" honestly have no clue what's going on.

People think that teenagers can't handle the adult world, and they're right. But that's because we're teenagers! I can barely remember to make breakfast in the morning. And that's okay.
Botstein suggests that "By the time those who graduate from high school go on to college and realize what really is at stake in becoming an adult, too many opportunities have been lost and too much time has been wasted." But isn't having children graduate at 16 and enter college or the workforce already forcing them to give up opportunities? Honestly, Botstein has good intentions, he does. But don't get mad at teenagers for surviving the adult world, because newsflash, nobody really gets it.