What they fail to realize is that there are other children who haven't come in with the same kinds of explicit instruction or direct instruction from parents. By not providing it for them, along with the language-rich environment, what teachers are doing is putting those children at a disadvantage. Ore. In our society language classifies me. I need to speak correctly to make it. When more attention is paid to the way something is written or said than to what is said, students' words and thoughts become devalued.
Students learn to be silent, to give as few words as possible for teacher criticism.
Students must be taught to hold their own voices sacred, to ignore the teachers who have made them feel that what they've said is wrong or bad or stupid. Students must be taught how to listen to the knowledge they've stored up, but which they are seldom asked to relate. Too often students feel alienated in schools. Knowledge is foreign. It's about other people in other times.