Vicki Dennis

OH, well. Change is hard. There are still people that go "ballistic" over
the idea of elementary age students using $10 handheld solar powered
calculators instead of spending days/hours/weeks and a ream of paper to
practice long division or calculate compound interest.
Or who think it reasonable to forbid older students to possess graphing
calculators or to use keyboards to write essays that are actually legible!

KMN may be a reasonable demand for a tutor who cannot accept change. It
would be reasonable to expect persons to navigate between languages and to
be able to use one singularly on a particular task but the impression I got
from the essay indicated more absolute value judgment of the language rather
than merely an expectation of separation.

Me, I admit that I am too set in my ways to learn another language and
"foreign" languages never came easy for me anyway. Would you believe I
still use a checkbook "register" and balance my account by hand? And it is
doubtful I will EVER text message in my sleep...especially since I tend to
use standard English even in texts....which I only started appreciating 6
months ago when it was the means of communication when son was in birthing
room with wife and us grandmas were looking after the toddler.

I am in awe of the many I know who can text (rapidly!!!) with phone in
their pocket. I count it along the same road as the years I spent looking
for a teenager each time daylight savings time rotated and I had a digital
watch to reset.

vicki.



On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 1:45 PM, Pamela Sorooshian <pamsoroosh@...>
wrote:

> <
> http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-kolesnikova13-2008may13,0,74953.story
> >
>
> The author seems very angry at the kids. Anger seems a highly
> inappropriate and non-useful response.
>
> --pam
>
>


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