Hemlines rise and fall, lapels and ties get wider and
skinnier, and pant legs flare or narrow with or without cuffs. People expect to
see fashion change every year, and some even save old clothes, knowing that favorite
colors and designs will recycle into popular style once again. While humans
understand this truth about what they wear, they don’t always see a correlation
to how language changes as well.
Still in my mid-twenties and early in my teaching career, I experienced
my first lesson about how words and memories dear to me meant nothing to my
students. I reenacted a once popular Dr. Pepper commercial to help a class of
sixteen-year-olds connect to what I was teaching. I was certain that as soon as
they recognized the metaphor in my perfect example they would understand my
lesson.
As I stood before
them enthusiastically reciting the little ditty that had made me a fool for
carbonated prune juice, I saw only blank looks staring back at me. That
commercial had never run during their lifetimes. Those dull gazes turned my
catchy lines into something awkward like, “I guess you’ve probably never seen
that before.”
Their choreographed nodding from left to right confirmed my
fear. We had a major disconnect. At a youthful, pre-motherhood twenty-five, I
felt ancient standing before individuals who were only nine years younger than
I.
Time has not softened the shock of realizing my
understanding of the world is a distant planet from my students’ realm. That
moment when I think I’m using a relevant example, but I’m not, occurs often
enough that I now pause to consider where teens might have heard a phrase before
I write a quote on the board.
To warm brains up, I like to jot challenges on the white
board at the front of my room—even saying white board instead of chalkboard is
one of those new planet concepts. Students now don’t know what chalk boards
are—they’ve’ never seen them outside a museum. I’ll post examples similar to
100yds=1 ff or 52 C=1 D, hoping I’ll hear, “Hey, 100 yards equals a football
field and there are 52 cards in a deck.”
Increasing the difficulty, I’ll post teasers such as A S L than W, T and T W f N M, or A S in T S
9. Today’s students swiftly answer, “Actions Speak Louder than Words.” After
some time, they figure out “Time and Tides wait for no man.” The tide part challenges
them, but they’ve heard the rest of that aphorism. The stumper was the one I
thought would have been the easiest, “A Stitch in Time Saves Nine.”
Once I told my classes what A S
in T S 9 meant, several questioned the meaning of that adage, putting me on
the spot. Heavens, neither my students’ nor my generation have mended hand-knit
socks to make them last. We buy our socks in packages and toss them in the ragbag
when they get a hole. Jeans that folks buy today further confound matters. It
seems getting an extra hole is a bonus, not something we race to stitch-up.
Some things about people don’t change. Everyone needs love and acceptance.
Everyone needs a meaningful occupation. Everyone needs healthy food and
protective shelter. However, fashion and language use do change. What one
generation understands can confuse a different generation.
Just wear your old zoot suit or bell bottoms and explain something to your
grandchild like that's the bees knees or that's groovy, which made sense to you as a kid, depending on your generation.
No comments:
Post a Comment