SAT Scores

Recently, an "All Things Considered" news story on National Public Radio (NPR) relayed reports from the College Board: apparently our students have improved their math scores over the past few years, but they haven't made any progress at all toward improving language scores.

Is it really any wonder?

Math is a finite study. Despite some differences in how the mathematics is taught and the variety of its applications, math is math. The rules of calculus don't change, and they always work. Trigonometric functions are the same on every calculator and every engineer's desk. Not only that, but -- for the most part -- students use this particular discipline while listening to a lesson in class and doing homework at the kitchen table. . . and that's just about it.

On the other hand, language is a vibrant, changing entity. What was "right" twenty years ago may have faded into obscure use by now. More difficult to overcome, though, is the rampant misuse of the language. The same sophomores who close their algebra books when the bell rings at the end of second period will spend the rest of the day speaking, hearing, reading the English language. Chances are, the teacher who taught the day's math lesson, did so effectively; however, the "lessons" in language that bombard these impressionable minds are, for the most part, fraught with error. Television, music, advertisements, internet chat rooms, cell phone text messages, and (dare I mention it?) parents who don't speak correctly themselves "teach" our students more language than any English instructor can correct in a mere fifty minutes a day.

If we're going to consider all things, we should be thrilled that English scores don't drop off into a colloquial morass.

Language: the gift of God to man, worthy of conscientious stewardship.

-lkl