Is There a Solution? "They Just Don't Have the Words."

My friend Non Talbot Wels tweeted my last post, "They Just Don't Have the Words" and asked, "Solutions, Kristen?"
I can always count on Non to ask good questions.
I've spent over twenty years trying to answer/address the diminishing vocabulary of my students.
The answer I have now is the same answer I started out with: that students gain the power of words, and thus ideas, through stories.
Books.
I know a lot of teachers who assign vocabulary lists. I understand this, but lists are of limited use without context. I do believe in the power of Memory. Mnemosyne is, after all, the mother of the muses, but muses need mortar, not just bricks.
Word immersion is better.
Word immersion comes from books, from stories.
And, initially, this immersion must come from a kid's parents and primary caregivers.
I think the Edu-speak term for this is "language-rich environment."
I think immersion in books is best served by keeping a kid unplugged for as long as possible. Listening to books in the car, going to the library, telling stories, having the kid tell stories, illustrate stories, and just playing are all good things.
Toddlers with iPads alarm me.
Babies in front of televisions fill me with dismay.
Teens who are always plugged in without respite or boundaries of any kind are the products of grossly irresponsible parents who have chosen the path of least resistance.
The Path of Least Resistance ends, at best, in mediocrity.
I say these things and people are puzzled. After all, my classroom is a computer lab.
Without the human, I tell parents, technology is dangerous.
I know people get mad at me.
It's okay. I'm not running for Homecoming Queen.
I'm just fighting to give kids real power, the power that creates realities which arise from a glad union of dreams and action.
Dreams and actions that begin with words.

"They just don't have the words." Two teachers share their sorrow.

It's the end of finals week.
Students and teachers are tired.
I have a colleague, and English and History teacher, who is one of the smartest men I know, as well as one of the most dedicated teachers I ever expect to know. We were roommates for two years, and the man never went to bed before two in the morning. He is a master of twenty-first century project design.
The students adore him, keeping in touch with him long after graduation.
If you were fortunate, you may have had a teacher like him.
I talked with him today about some of our freshmen.
"It is just so frustrating," he told me. "They just don't have the words to express ideas."
Ten years ago I read about a study that compared the vocabulary of students in the fifties with the vocabulary of today's students.
The study indicated that current students use about half of the words students in the fifties did.
I do not think it is an overstatement to say that this is a crisis.
A Word Crisis.
My friend and great American writer, Andrew Smith, talks about the connection between words, ideas, and creativity a lot.
For over twenty years one of my classroom mantras has been "Words are power."
Power to communicate, power to create, power to change the world.
"Choose to wield words for good and noble purposes," I tell them.
And when my heart is dark and weary, as it is tonight, I think of Matthew Arnold, "Dover Beach", and ignorant armies, and I am afraid.