As a grandparent of a third grader in the Columbia County school system, articles pertaining to the educational learning format provoke my interest. Recently an article in The Chronicle concerning the teaching of "pidgin English" in Hawaiian classrooms caught my attention. Results of a national study indicate a "poor showing by pupils on national writing skills." The inference is: "If your thinking is not in standard English, it's hard for you to write in standard English."
Our third grade granddaughter's reading text contains words such as; "whatcha," "ain't" and "gonna" on a number of pages. One wonders how many other texts in the system are similar? In view of recent statistics on local rankings, quality of education, etc., perhaps the Hawaiian survey may have relevance to Columbia County schools. Incidentally, the title of the reading text is Spotlight on Literacy.
Tom Lindbom, Grovetown