Why Is There English?

A lot of what happens in schools runs on pure habit. Some
habits cause more problems than they solve, and awhile back efforts
were begun to reform them. Three decades later the reforming
seems habitual too, though that's not the topic at hand. Instead, let's
consider the good fortune that one habit has - so far - slipped under
the reformers' radar.
Here's an interesting fact of American education: The only course
most high school students must take all four years is English. And
the one course required of virtually all college and university
students is an English course, composition. Some colleges require
two composition courses. Courses in literature are often required
too.
Given recent curriculum renovations, this English requirement may
be no more than an institutional habit that's simply been
overlooked. Take, for example, a student in a composition course I
taught a few years ago. He was a bright young guy, quick-witted in
class (though not the quickest) and of above average intellectual
ability (though not the top). But he refused to put any effort into his
writing assignments. Short weekly papers were a hastily scrawled
sentence or two. His formal essays were pretty obviously typed the
night before using what students misname "stream of
consciousness." Some weeks into the course, it became clear that the
D's he was getting didn't bother him at all. So on the next essay, he
got the F he deserved all along.
That got his attention. He came to my office to find out what
minimum of forced labor he had to serve to pass the course. He did
not put it like that, but would not have disagreed with the phrasing.
I evaded his question by asking: "Sam, why don't you just put more
time into the essays?"
His reply was very clear. He said: 1) He could not write very well
and never would because 2) he was good at math. To him, these
facts disposed of the whole problem of his relationship to English.
And it was pretty clear some authority had already approved this
line of reasoning. He was a math major; English courses did not
apply to him. He just needed to pass this meaningless requirement
with a D.
I tried re-explaining a point we had belabored the first week of
class. "These English courses," I said, "are the most important
classes you'll ever take."
Sam thought this was a joke claim. And no doubt other, more
influential people will roll their eyes, too. But the fact is, there are
powerful reasons why English is required of virtually all high
school and college students - though they seem through force of
habit to have been forgotten.
"English" courses, whether they emphasize reading, writing or
speaking, are called that because they are (or used to be) the study of
English, a language. But why would any practical person study
language? You don't need to study baskets to use one.
This habitually repeated notion that language is a tool has some
validity. Language does carry information back and forth. But
words are about as much like little baskets as the sun is like a lump
of coal.
Language does transmit information, but the transmission can
happen clearly and unclearly. Anyone who has tried to assemble
bicycles or furniture from written instructions knows that some
directions work and others might as well be in Chinese.
The upshot of this is simple, but has profound effects: When
language is used well, things work better. If communication in the
office is clearer, the office works better. Communication between
diplomats, between troops, between businessmen is better when
language is clear, and things work better. The primary reason
American students are required to study English is so they'll use it
more clearly and things will work better.
But it goes way beyond this.
Here's another quirky fact: English courses can exist without math,
but Sam's math courses cannot exist without English. In fact, the
university itself cannot exist without English (or, obviously, some
other language). Virtually everything humans do is affected or
outright created by language.
So the more you know about your language, and the more you
practice speaking, reading and writing it, the more effectively you
live. In China, they study Chinese. In France, French. There is a lot
more to words than the dictionary meanings they carry.
Sam understood all this only vaguely. Eventually he escaped the
composition course with a D, never quite grasping that his
relationship to English directly influences his ability to understand
calculus. Not to mention life itself, but that's a future topic.
I tell this story because a lot of people think this way about English
classes. Some years ago a memo appeared in faculty mailboxes at a
university of my acquaintance, warning that university, government
and community leaders had discussed the notion that humanities
courses, including English, should move out of classrooms and onto
the Internet, mainly to save money. This is cheerfully called
"efficiency."
Now, whether you like to think so or not, an assumption
underneath this notion is that humanities courses - including
English - are not important enough to spend so much time, space
and money on. They are burdensome old habits that can be curbed.
Given the importance of language in virtually every aspect of
human life, we are all extremely fortunate these people have not
gotten control of curriculums. Yet.
Dana Wilde taught college English for two decades and is now an
editor and columnist for the BDN. His e-mail address is
dwilde@bangordailynews.net.

Here's another quirky fact: English courses can exist without math,
but Sam's math courses cannot exist without English. In fact, the
university itself cannot exist without English (or, obviously, some
other language). Virtually everything humans do is affected or
outright created by language.
So the more you know about your language, and the more you
practice speaking, reading and writing it, the more effectively you
live. In China, they study Chinese. In France, French. There is a lot
more to words than the dictionary meanings they carry.
Sam understood all this only vaguely. Eventually he escaped the
composition course with a D, never quite grasping that his
relationship to English directly influences his ability to understand
calculus. Not to mention life itself, but that's a future topic.
I tell this story because a lot of people think this way about English
classes. Some years ago a memo appeared in faculty mailboxes at a
university of my acquaintance, warning that university, government
and community leaders had discussed the notion that humanities
courses, including English, should move out of classrooms and onto
the Internet, mainly to save money. This is cheerfully called
"efficiency."
Now, whether you like to think so or not, an assumption
underneath this notion is that humanities courses - including
English - are not important enough to spend so much time, space
and money on. They are burdensome old habits that can be curbed.
Given the importance of language in virtually every aspect of
human life, we are all extremely fortunate these people have not
gotten control of curriculums. Yet.