RUTHFULLY YOURS

English is a glorious language that has developed over a thousand years, borrowing from every other tongue as it goes, and developing strict rules to maintain maximum coherence. It is spoken around the world and is, therefore, the language of money and power. But to a White, middle-aged leftist English teacher, the English language she’s responsible for teaching to all students, regardless of race, color, creed, etc., is nothing more than an ugly White supremacist means of controlling people

More than any language in the world, English is a portmanteau language—that is, it has cheerfully borrowed from every language with which English speakers have come into contact, creating a language of unusual richness and beauty. Over the millennia, it has absorbed myriad tongues into its Germanic core: Latin, Greek, the Romance languages, French, Hindu, Welsh, Gaelic, Dutch, Hebrew, Yiddish, Arabic, Swahili, and more. In this, it differs greatly from other languages. The French, for example, are proud that their language has calcified.

Over the same time, it has developed grammar rules that are intended to ensure the utmost clarity when communicating. Take, for example, one of my favorites, which is the rule against dangling or misplaced modifiers. There is a huge difference between “The girl in the red bathing suit watched a seagull flying by,” and “The girl watched a seagull flying by in a red bathing suit.”

I also like the rules saying that the wise writer avoids passive voice. Which sentence do you prefer? “The dog played with the child’s ball” or “The ball of the child was played with by the dog.”

Image: Title page of the original Webster’s Dictionary (1828) by Cullen328. CC BY-SA 3.0.

There are also structural rules that make communication better. As an editor, I tell every writer to start with an outline. Doing so allows the writer to see how the ideas in his essay relate to each other and whether they make a coherent argument, also known as a thesis. There’s a world of difference between an essay in which the author states a compelling thesis and then proceeds to prove it in an orderly fashion and an essay that’s the equivalent of verbal vomit spilling out on the reader’s computer screen.

In other words, English is a dynamic, completely unprejudiced language that’s willing to absorb influences from every part of the world, and is at its best when people follow rules that encourage clarity at an essay’s micro and macro levels.

A good English teacher is one who conveys all of this to her students, explaining why our language is awesome and why the rules matter—and then proceeding to teach her students these rules. Once a student has mastered his mother tongue, he is able to go out and, in theory, conquer the world. Why? Because all human interactions rely on communication, and he who communicates best has an advantage.

An American-based teacher who insists that a student from Mexico should learn only Spanish or that a Black student should learn only “Ebonics,” is consigning that student to a life of poverty and powerlessness. That’s not because English is inherently racist. After all, anyone can learn it. It’s because, as noted, English is the language of power and money; it’s a magic key for any English speaker.

But that’s not how academic leftism works. Academic leftism, in its overweening ignorance, argues that, because English developed among White people, and White men were once very powerful, therefore English is inherently evil. Just knowing its vocabulary and rules is a toxin so strong that it irrevocably taints people.

If I sound like I’m exaggerating, I’m not. Just listen to this anonymous, White, middle-aged, very angry English teacher: