Defining English

"Learning is not waiting for the revelation but making it, not absorbing knowledge but creating it." (Milner, p.9)

I couldn't help but reflect on Milner's quote realizing this is why we teach.  Our students have the tools and the ability to be creative in our classrooms with all the technology they have available to them and our English classrooms gives them many opportunities to accomplish this! When I look at the terms in 1-2: communication arts, language arts, and English I made these conclusions:  English is the term we used in the Industrial Age when it was taught that English had a set of rules that must be followed; proper grammar, format, and limited interpretations of literature.  I would have to say today English would be the least comprehensive term of the three when referring to English education today.  Communications arts is a much more comprehensive term in today's technologically developed world.  We are able to communicate through so many different genre's and devices that students have very little limitations to express themselves to their peers, teachers and the world.  We are communicating and creating knowledge everyday with and extraordinary amount of tools.  Language arts can often be interpreted as merely reading literature and writing a story, but communication arts opens a variety of tools and genre's our students can use in their writing.  We have the ability to use film, media, music, and all of our social networking tools to communicate to a larger audience. Communication arts gives our students the ability to think more creatively and expand our writing beyond writing a paper or giving a speech.

Language arts is probably more appropriate for elementary and middle school students who are learning basic writing and language development.  This is more introductory to the tools that will be come available to them as they get older.  It is probably even too basic for middle school students because many of them are already using social media and other forms of technology to express themselves.  Our responsibility as educators is to teach them to use these tools to be more objective and develop their critical thinking.  While they are learning to express themselves, we need to show them how they can do it creatively and thoughtfully. 

English, according to the Free Dictionary, is "A course or individual class in the study of English language, literature, or composition." This presents a formal and proper assessment and does not present the idea that we can use English to create or analyze but merely to understand.  It does not implicate that we can use this class to expand our thinking beyond what the scholars have written and the rules they have set.  The term itself is confining. 

Communication Arts would definitely define English in today's classroom.  We need to teach our students how to use what they learn about literature, language, and writing with the growing forms of communication available to them.  We should not limit our students thinking.  I hope that I can present this idea to my students and allow them to think past the text and relate great literature to their lives.  I don't want them to stop after an exam using the old idea of the 3 R's, but instead embrace the challenge of the 3I's discussed in Milner that were developed by Moffet and Wagner.  Their suggestion of Individualization, Interaction and Integration.  These ideas allow our students to be more powerful in their interpretation and writing instead of limiting their ideas and creativity.