To invoke the image from Rabelais, we have focused too much on the outside part of the bone – the skills – and not enough on the bone marrow – FLOW and a sense of soft heart centered communication with our students.
We can’t be blamed. Schools have had that effect on us. We started focusing on results and not on process. Schools have almost demanded that we take the heart out of human communication in favor of gathering data and making sure that our kids learn certain words found in lists.
Thus, and again no blame, we have targeted the language way too much in our classrooms and lost the sense of fun and lightheartedness that must exist at the heart of human communication if the language is to be truly acquired.