Probably for the rest of my life I will carry a certain amount of guiltfor things I thought and did in my childhood. Twelve years in a parochial school made a believer out of me.<\/p>\n
Most of my scrapes came as the result of inappropriate laughter. Why was it permissible \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and even encouraged \u00e2\u20ac\u201d for elementary school kids to laugh, even to guffaw, when the teacher attempted humor, but never OK for me to try instigating some laughter on my own?<\/p>\n
True, her humor was polished and refined; mine, banal. Our homeroom teacher at Immaculate Conception School, Sister Mary Sans L\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Humour, never let a spurious giggle go unnoticed or unpunished.<\/p>\n
And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the nature of the beast finally to catch the punch line to yesterday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s joke, while in church today or engaged in some other form of reverence.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153And Arthur, would you like to tell the class what you find so funny?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d became almost a daily interrogative. The nun\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s diurnal demand that I share the humor with the class was stressful, as I believe she often challenged me to cough up a situation that never even existed. That left me to try to conjure up an occasion for laughing.<\/p>\n
Perpetually one who finds humor in things linguistic, I suspect I got into trouble a lot for my levity, for finding humor in situations in which one ought to be serious.<\/p>\n
Indeed, throughout my professional life, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been chided, or at least looked at askance, for giggling inappropriately or for smiling when others aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t, prompting them to ask, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so funny?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever had the right answer for that question, nor has the asker ever seemed to appreciate my levity or my explanation. I believe the what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s-so-funny? query reflects others\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 fear that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re laughing at them, and that isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always the case.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so funny?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d ranks along with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What are you looking at?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d usually asked by those embarrassed by having attracted a crowd. Angered by the situation that makes them the center of attention, naturally they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to be up-tight.<\/p>\n
Once I noticed some locals on Chavez Street gathered around a car, hood up. I drove by slowly, slow enough for one of the crew to ask, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What you looking at?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d His mien told me he was not about to invite me to exchange fudge brownie recipes.<\/p>\n
I think my answer, \u00e2\u20ac\u201d totally unrehearsed \u00e2\u20ac\u201d surprised him. I said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Want to use my jumper cables?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all it took. It had indeed been a dead battery that crippled their car. And since then, things have gone smoothly between us. Of course, I always carry a pair of jumpers with me. And I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ever act as if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m amused over someone else\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s difficulty.<\/p>\n
Sister Sans L\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Humour did her job well.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u201a\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u201a\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a shocking amount of language inflation in this age when we haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t yet recovered from teen-speak, Valley Girl Talk, Bureaucratic-ese and Text-ese<\/p>\n
Let me explain:<\/p>\n
You may have already read my rant about how the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153like\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has become the most common non-word in conversation.<\/p>\n
Like even people close to me, like grandchildren, when they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re telling about something they did or said, pepper their speech with, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m like golly, and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like really?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Like has taken the place of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153said.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Instead of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I said, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcyou\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re looking good,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d we hear, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m like \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcyou\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re looking good.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I suspect that once upon a time, someone overused \u00e2\u20ac\u0153like\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in locutions like, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I said something like \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcGolly, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re smart.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d In time, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153something like\u00e2\u20ac\u009d became just \u00e2\u20ac\u0153like,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and the problem grew.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s disturbing to hear grownups now speaking that way. If, according to the rules, adults teach children, something\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wrong here.<\/p>\n
People don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t use \u00e2\u20ac\u0153like\u00e2\u20ac\u009d much when writing. A few months ago there was a host of activities ranging from an AAUW convention to an ambitious tree-planting day at Lincoln Park, to a massive Gallinas River cleanup.<\/p>\n
At one of the events, I listened in as a parent apparently told of her exchange with her teenager. In every instance, the mom used \u00e2\u20ac\u0153like\u00e2\u20ac\u009d instead of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153said,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d like this: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153My son\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWhy can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t I like borrow the car?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m like, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcBecause I like said so.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
I wondered whether her \u00e2\u20ac\u0153like\u00e2\u20ac\u009d-ness applied only to what her son had spoken. I soon discovered that, like, that was the way she \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the mom \u00e2\u20ac\u201d spoke anyway.<\/p>\n
The conclusion is inescapable: Obviously, she picked up her son\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mannerisms and is spreading them to others. Will the perfectly acceptable \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I said\u00e2\u20ac\u009d fade into oblivion?<\/p>\n
Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like hope not.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u201a\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2\u00e2\u20ac\u201a\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
In last week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s column, I lamented that what I fear is the inevitable death of cursive writing. Anyone who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been inside an elementary school, ever, recalls the enlarged cursive alphabet posters surrounding the walls of each classroom.<\/p>\n
I have no doubt that soon the last vestiges of cursive writing will show up in the personal signature people will occasionally need to provide. Teaching well into this century, after having formally retired from full-time teaching, I was amazed to see such a dismaying lack of cursive writing in students\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 assignments. Most of them printed, a much slower process.<\/p>\n
And now, with keyboards and pads that we tap, we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t practice handwriting much.<\/p>\n
Richard Lindeborg, a frequent contributor to this column, might have come across a way to allay my fears about the dismal future of cursive. He writes:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153How about this: Since writing cursive has clearly became optional for communication, we could teach it in art classes and workshops much like we now teach calligraphy.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Since reading cursive is still a communications skill (for a few decades people will encounter documents written in cursive, either by the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcolder generation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in present time or stashed away in business or personal files still needed for reference.),\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Lindeborg added, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We could continue for a while to teach reading cursive in the reading\/language curriculum.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Probably for the rest of my life I will carry a certain amount of guiltfor things I thought and did in my childhood. Twelve years in a parochial school made a believer out of me. Most of my scrapes came as the result of inappropriate laughter. Why was it permissible \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and even encouraged \u00e2\u20ac\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1279"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1280,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279\/revisions\/1280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}