The County Press

VIEW POINT

Words will always matter



 

 

When I was in school, teachers often defended the need to memorize complicated equations in algebra class by saying that “when you’re older, you’re not always going to have a calculator in your pocket.”

I’m old enough to have believed them at the time, because I didn’t get my first cell phone until I was 18, and it wasn’t because my parents were luddites, it was because they didn’t exist yet. And even then, my first cell phone had a hinge. And actual buttons.

Needless to say, I didn’t really start regularly texting until I was in my 20s. It took a while for the concept of texting to really take hold — it just seemed easier to call a person and say words with my actual voice into the little phone hole than it did to hit a series of numbers to try to conjure up the letters needed to relay that I was “OMW.”

Now, however, I’d put the ratio of texting (including email through my phone, as well as the various chat apps like Discord and Hangouts and whathaveyou) versus phone conversations and a healthy 90/10, and I would much rather spend several minutes composing the perfect text reply to a complicated question than I would just calling a person and using speech to share that same information.

It doesn’t really matter, however, because communication is communication. Whether it’s through print, text on a phone, talking face-to-face or Facebook, it’s still using language to relay information. And no matter how you slice it, words will always be important. Monday night saw dozens of area middle-schoolers carrying on the tradition of valuing the importance of words during the Lapeer County Spelling Bee, and these middle schoolers have been texting since they were old enough to hold a phone.

Technology doesn’t “ruin” language, as some have said. It enhances it. Language evolves. As new forms of communication are created, the method via which we transfer information grows and shifts to accommodate that evolution. The middle schoolers at the spelling bee are growing up in a world much, much different than the one I did, but the fundamental roots of the language we share are still recognizable. And even in areas we might diverge — I’d give you an example but I’m too old now to even know what I don’t know — it isn’t a case of “young people ruining the language,” it’s simply the next generation making it their own.

Preceding the start of Monday’s Bee, official pronouncer and North Branch Area Schools Curriculum Director Amber White told the spellers that in some places, school districts are moving away from spelling bees and toward vocabulary bees. The thought is that in the world today, with spell check and digital text supplanting pen-to-paper, it’s more important to understand how to use a word than it is to simply spell it correctly. Here’s an example of a vocabulary question, presented in multiple choice: “Something that gives a sign or proof:

A. Providence, B. Acquaintance, C. Evidence, or D. Confidence.”

Is it more important to know how to spell each of these words? Or is it more important to know we’re looking for evidence of understanding? I for one would like to see equal importance given to both. Maybe one day, the front page of this very newspaper will feature not only the winner of the county spelling bee, but the winner of the county vocabulary bee as well. Time will tell.