Craig West has written something very wonderful and very beautiful here that makes me feel that I am on the right track in my own pursuit of figuring out the best way to reach kids as a language teacher. I give this comment from Craig a million stars:
…I am seeing the language learning process just like I see the universe. We can observe the universe and love it’s beauty and feel wonder as we contemplate it’s existence but the more we scrutinize it the more complicated and inaccessible it becomes. Language is a unique eternal part of the human experience that has existed for as long as man has existed upon the earth. It is a wonder. One that we can make cumbersome the more we scrutinize and analyze it. The more we try to uncover the layers and mysteries of this human phenomenon the less it is a wonder to us. The less accessible it becomes to our students. It is then not a wonder of sincere human interaction. I care nothing about calculating the orbit of a star or wondering at what heat it burns. I merely want to sit back and experience wonder as I observe its eternal beauty, and allow that beauty to uplift me….