Let's Buy the... BROOKLYN BRIDGE.

• There are two poles of thought about how language is acquired.

• One (the Nativists) suggests it is an innate skill specific to our species (Lenneberg).

• The other (the Behaviorists) accounts for it in terms of learning theory (Skinner).

• To cut to the quick, both are involved and... yet much more. Language does erupt and develop like a seed when it is given water. The water for language is speech (or signs) particularly when they occur as part of a social interaction.

• It is difficult to forestall the growth of language under these conditions. But like a seed, the size of the ultimate plant is open to question.

Or better yet, let's build the GOLDEN GATE

• Like a growing plant, language can develop into a twig or a tree, depending upon the nourishment it receives.

• Correspondingly, the language a child will develop may be as restricted as a foot bridge or as broad as the Brooklyn Bridge, to open the way for communication with the world inside and out..

• If language is the bridge by which we connect with our past, our present, our future; and with ourselves, I would like to think that we would get for each child a bridge as broad as the Brooklyn Bridge, or better yet, the Golden Gate !

• Then for the rest of their lives, their access to information and their ability to process it would be maximally assured.

  Which will it be?

  
  
  

  A foot bridge...or...
  
  
  
  The Golden Gate.