Omar,

   Thanks for bringing to mind one of the most powerful of Woody's fine
songs. It was written on the occassion of a plane crash that killed
"deportees", migrant workers being shipped back to Mexico once the
California harvest was over. It's a wonderful example of a deeply
moving language structure built from the language of everyday life. As
is so often the case with great literature, it deeply transcends its
time.
   I think you are misquoting the "Jabberwocky" poem slightly.
   Our highest register poet might be Wallace Stevens, though he, too, was
capable of wonderfully simple (yet deeply resonant) lines: "He is not
here, the old sun/ As absent as if we were alseep."  Or "In this bleak
air the broken stalks/ Have arms without hands."
   Our ultimate genius might be Langston Hughes, who knew he was writing
for a people often denied access to schools. "I've known rivers ancient
as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins."
   You're absolutely right. We need to point out how much work a simple
language can do. Literature gives us the context. In the U.S., we have
a wonderful literature built from the language of the people.

Craig


> Craig Hancock wrote:
>
>>   As a field, we should err on the side of inclusiveness and
>>functionality. Lots of what you call "error" may very well be the
>>places where meaning is undeveloped or confusing or lost or where the
>>student has not yet become comfortable with the tools available to a
>>writer. Knowledge about lanaguage is a useful adjunct to this. In a
>>sense, error is what we do when we write, but I think the better
>>writers tend to look at what is working and build from there.
>>
> Comfort with the tools of a writer is a matter of emerging language
> maturity and this problem also dogs math teachers, in particular. To
> develop this maturity we need to be  not only language creators but also
> language consumers. When the study of grammar is divorced from that of
> literature making these connections is not always obvious. We look for
> examples of good grammar in good literature, and so our subjective
> judgements of literature become tangled in prescriptive views of
> grammar. Craig's comments reminded me of a line in the Woody Guthrie
> song, "Deportee" -
>
> The sky-plane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon.
> A fireball of lightening that shook all our hills.
> Who are these friends all scattered like dry leaves?
> The radio said they were just deportees.
>
> This is creative on so many levels, I think it illustrates the argument
> about inclusiveness and functionality and if we want an example of a
> higher register, we still have,
>
> 'Come to my arms, by beamish boy! O frabjous day! Challooh! Challay!' He
> chortled in his joy.
>
> Which could, of course, be improved by using "real words".
>
> This connectiveness why I particularly like Ed Vavra's work from wild
> texts in his KISS grammar on-line. And for connected mathematics, there
> is a series of materials called, Connected Mathematics, I think, that is
> predictably controversial among K-12 math teachers. As an aside, I think
> it's useful for teachers to be aware of how colleagues in other subject
> areas are reacting to analagous problems.
>
> Omar
>
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