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Miss Foley's letter A Parting Word |
A Parting Word... In spite of the free advice on all sides in diets, poker, and child-raising we usually end by going on alone and playing it by ear. Your best clue to your children’s language needs will come from your awareness of the demands your daily activities put on you. Your children need the very same skills that you do, but in addition they need to build a backlog of experience which you already have to draw on when you think and express yourself. There is another distinction: they can’t go as long as you can without a pat on the back. Recently I heard a mother say, “Let’s face it. Parents bringing up children today have about as many responsibilities as the engineers launching an astronaut.” Was she too far off? There is one big difference, fortunately. Good intentions aren’t enough to keep a space ship on course, but with children they go a long, long way. You don’t have to be an expert in grammar or spend a fortune on travel and equipment to make a break-through. The very fact that you care enough to try communicate to your children is like the spring sun calling to buried seeds. Someone has wisely said that language is “caught, not taught.” You can’t go at it head-on the way you bake a cake or build a cabinet. It’s more like gardening. You don’t actually handle the growing seed once it’s planted. You cultivate around it and let the sun and the rain take turns coaxing it along. And we had best be patient with our beloved crop. Even a head of lettuce takes three months to grow.
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