Linguistic Blunders Are More Than Meets The Eye

To the amusement of newspapers editors and readers alike, some elementary school graduates made quite a few humorous blunders upon taking their graduation exam in Romanian language a few days ago. While some people may have a good laugh about it, I believe the matter is rather serious for at least two reasons.

First, a great injustice has been done to the eighth grade graduates who took their final exams recently. The Romanian language remains partially uncharted territory even to many of our politicians, public servants and media stars who confiscate our television and radio waves, and most of the newspapers, too, every day. Linguistic inaptitude, illiteracy, grammar mistakes, semi-illiteracy, neo or retro versions of the dry, bureaucratic dialect have become great ingredients for newspaper articles highly enjoyed by the general public. Some public figures have become famous for illiterate language, but that did not prevent them from being successful or getting rich! Richer than all the prizes and awards The Romanian Academy has presented over the past 100 years! So pointing fingers and laughing at some children who, because of nervousness or rudimentary education, made the linguistic blunders that were so voluptuously quoted by journalists is rather uncalled for. Uncalled for is also the insensitivity of the teachers who collect such blunders and feed them to journalists, despite being partially responsible for their students' precarious abilities.

Secondly, the Romanian education system has been (and will probably be) undergoing an endless process of transition from "who knows where' to "who knows when.' A recent poll on the usefulness of the knowledge and information taught in schools is nothing short of an official declaration of the education system's bankruptcy. The poll indicates that most people believe that the education system has long lost touch with reality, that the education acquired in schools matters little after graduation and that education is no longer a criterion for social status and prestige. In brief, it is believed that the education has become an appendix to a vast bureaucratic system designed rather to keep teaching staff employed (on a miserable salary) than to function as a source of education and expertise to the new generations.

This is the cue for the competent and good-faithed teachers, who feel offended by such "unwarranted generalization," to bring up their achievements - the children that keep winning all sorts of awards in all sorts of domestic and international competitions, the generation of computer geniuses who have turned Romania's IT industry into one of the most dynamic IT industries in the world, the Romanian students gone abroad for master's or doctoral degrees who amaze their professors in France, The US, Germany, or Britain and so on and so for. So, if such "products' exist the system cannot be bankrupt, Romanian educators claim. But their argument is weak and can be easily refuted: these meritorious young people are not the "products' of the system, but its "rejects,' the exceptions, that is. Most often cultivated like rare flowers by some dedicated teacher or professor (there are such exceptions, too), by parents or grandparents who have managed to spark the love of beauty, harmony and science in their minds, such young people contrast vigorously with the "mass' of Romanian students. However, the performance of an entire system cannot be judged by "rejects' or "exceptions' but by the bulk of what it produces. Unfortunately, the "bulk' of Romanian students are far from the description above. There is a Romanian saying that "one flower does not make spring.' Well, judging by the aforementioned poll and the general impression of the Romanian education system, this system is in a long, dark winter!

Is it so? Is it not? Neither polls nor the press can answer this. This is a job that should be left to serious sociological and educational research. But who is going to do it? The Romanian Academy is much too busy with much more "serious' things! The Ministry of Education is trapped in an endless red tape it cannot escape and so it can hardly make the time and resources necessary for such research! Specialized research institutes, if there are any left, barely have the money to pay their employees, much less embark on such project. In the meantime, The Government is busy making small changes here and there, such as a new law, or a modified law, or an updated law... Or some modified modifications... Every year...

Is it good? Is it bad? We do not know! The next generations will know whether what we have done for them is useful or not.