Since I had no idea where the Mr. Positive story was going, I was able to go along into interesting places with this story only because I didn’t know where it was going.
Even more important to notice for those who are aware of the targeted vs. non-targeted structures discussion on this site over the past six or seven years is that we basically didn’t hear Krashen on his point – and here comes a run on sentence: We kept targeting structures, etc. planning things for new people, and the result has been lukewarm stories, presented to the class by teachers with their pants bunched up too tight, and a feeling in the room of insecurity that permeated the room and almost poisoned it because children are not stupid and they sense it if the teacher is unsure and clinging too much to their life vest instead of swimming without it in a fearless way. I would rather drown a few times than be tethered to my life vest for my whole career.
It was in 2009 when Krashen warned us that too much targeting was not a good thing but, as usual, we ignored him. Luckily, some of the younger TPRS practitioners, notably Chris Stolz and Eric Herman and Michael Coxon, are leading us back to the future and the Natural Way and Blaine’s way and things will work out if we just listen to them.
(to be continued)