Jamaica Gleaner
Published: Friday | December 17, 2010
Home : Letters
Teach 'proper' English in schools
The Editor, Sir:

Kindly permit me to comment on an article by Philip Hamilton on Page A12 in The Gleaner of December 9, regarding Dr Winsome Gordon's advocacy for the reinforcement of standard English in schools.

Dr Gordon hit the nail right on the head and it is only a pity that hundreds of other educators have not expressed themselves publicly in similar vein.

There are many well-meaning and proud Jamaicans who feel that we need to have a "language of our own" and have decided that 'patwa' is going to be it. Some also consider our use of English as "apeing our former colonial masters". Some have stated that when our children attend classes, they cannot understand the teachers because they do not speak standard English at home and, therefore, the teachers should use 'patwa' to teach them English. What an insult to our children! What would have happened to so many of our great achievers of the past who, like the great majority of us, came from humble beginnings and, because their generations had the benefit of standard English, Latin and an insistence from our teachers that we learn and, indeed, that we excel in all subjects offered at the schools which we had the good fortune to have attended?

Teach our children to read and encourage a love for books and reading, and more than half the problem will be solved. Encourage parents to buy dictionaries and textbooks instead of having the children walking with cellphones stuck in their ears, and there will be an almost instant change in our rather bleak present situation. It will come as no surprise to me if future generations begin to emerge from the womb with one hand held firmly against an ear (A new affliction which the medical world will probably describe as 'cellphonitis').

Many proud and independent countries worldwide, in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas, have English as a required subject in their schools because they appreciate its importance in International trade and commerce. It is time to get serious about our offerings in the matter of education. First, the child must learn to read before he/she can be expected to begin learning other subjects. If the child can read, then the child can study - ad infinitum.

This lame excuse about the children being unable to read in English is just so much garbage and the National Solid Waste Management Authority already has more of that commodity than Jamaica will ever need.

I am, etc.,

DERRYCK M. PENSO

pensowrite@yahoo.com

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