Dude! Where's my Vocabulary?

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Let me share a short list of common words and phrases used by younger members of the species "Homo Schoolicus-Internationalis". This is what is to be heard as I wander their natural playground habitat: Awesome! Dude! Like … HELLO! Like… DUH! Been there; done that. WhatEVER! Fail! Epic Fail! And of course, the phrase which is chief amongst them all - three words, generally punched out for greater effect as three sentences:

Oh. My. God.

OMG indeed. I sometimes think I have died and gone to some teenage-sitcom purgatory for my sins. What has happened to rich vocabulary? I was advising two Grade 2 students a few weeks ago that their game would be far more enjoyable were they to agree the rules in advance rather than invent them as the situation suited one or the other of them. One of these boys looked at me very earnestly, his arms stretched out to show his frustration and said, "Dude! He's the one making up rules!" He also said some other stuff - I think he did anyway - but my brain was busy processing the fact that an 8-year-old had just called the principal "Dude!" As you might expect, I very quickly re–established my authority with this student. I mean to say - I am, at the very least, Mr Dude.

What to do about the general erosion of richness in the language, I really don't know. It is an uneven battle – our Literacy lessons in one corner, in the other the might of Network TV, SMS, the Blogosphere, Facebook … the list is ever increasing. But I do think that whenever you encounter a beautifully descriptive passage in your reading with your child, point out why it is so. Show how cleverly we can weave words and phrases together to convey a feeling or a place or a character. We need to provide a counterpoint to the banal tedium of teenager-speak in my (very uncool) opinion.

Have an awesome weekend dudes.


Brian