I teach language arts. This is the new name school districts have given to reading and English. I am forever explaining this whenever I tell people what I do. Language arts makes people assume I teach French or Spanish. I am not sure what was wrong with reading and English; someone decided these terms were obsolete.
We do not go to the library anymore. We go to one of the following: the learning center, the resource center or the learning-resource center.
This is not a natural evolution of the language, but a deliberate manipulation. Words today are cheap, meant to be changed, eliminated or replaced by convoluted conglomerations.
Now I am told by Stephen Chapman that speech no longer means speech in his June 27 column, ”Banning nude dancing, banning bad thoughts.” It means expression. More specifically, it means nude dancing. Mr. Chapman states the 1st Amendment protects nude dancing.
When words lose their specific meanings, communication becomes impossible. Mr. Chapman, you have made the 1st Amendment meaningless. What good is speech that means exactly nothing?
