Save the English Language! First installment

This will be the first rant of three or four, maybe more. It’s more on language in general than English, but later, I want to write
1. In defense of English as a language of philosophy,
2. In defense of English as a language of poetry, and
3. On the perils now faced by the English language.

A few years ago, my mother, who is never wrong, told me that she was thinking about making it her new ambition to save English. At the time, I thought something like “Might not be a bad idea.” Now that I’m a substitute teacher, trying to teach around a barrier of widespread bad English, I’m convinced that whatever English-speaking parts of the world allow their language to slip away are in for a new Dark Age.

It’s obvious to everyone that language is necessary for the study of any discipline. Fewer people realize that study is only possible TO THE DEGREE that the student makes skilful use of language. This is why so many teachers neglect proper grammar, as long as the student can “get his point across.” The student I met last week who couldn’t put noun and verb together in a complete sentence does have enough English to get along with his friends, get a job, and get through life. But should he ever want to study a mentally demanding subject, or even get anything out of a good novel, he will need to re-learn how to speak.

Even more fundamental than studying the works of other people is the use of language to work out our own thoughts. We think by taking the things we know and putting them together, thus discovering things that we didn’t know before. Language is our way of putting the whole process into boxes, and labeling them. Trying to think without knowing how to speak is like trying to build a deck with a poorly organized tool box: possible, but long and arduous.