Nurturing the whole child

Marking my students' papers is an exercise that shows up both parties' inadequacies. On my side, I often know what's right and wrong, but I have no idea how I can communicate that difference to the kids. This happens frequently when we deal with sentence structures - I cannot explain why some parts of the sentence have to go in front and others behind, except that that's how English works.

Which brings me to this conclusion: the worst thing for a kid to do is to avoid reading and start watching the TV or playing the computer games early. Without an intuitive ability to use the language, they will be crippled throughout their lives. You need language to impart education, so a poor grasp of the language limits not only learning ability, but the entire imaginative world of the individual, if you believe wittgenstein.

So. To teach the kids, I either have to explain to them the technicalities of English grammer rules, or insist that they somehow know it intuitively. Of course, the latter option is the more painless one, but none of my kids have the will or interest to pick up reading again. Then how? Jialat lah. They catch no ball I also boh pian.

So please, if you people out there ever have kids, don't shower them with toys or let them watch TV. Read to them when they are young, then make them read to themselves, all the way till adulthood. Force it on them if you have to, it doesn't matter. For once they seen the language being used properly often enough, there is no way they can get it wrong in the future. And you would have given them the best thing they can ever get.