“Should Schools Teach SMS Text Messaging?” by Andy Carvin

Carvin, Andy. “Should Schools Teach SMS Text Messaging?”. Learning Now. 1 10 2006: n. page. Web. 27 Nov. 2011.

            Andy Carvin starts off by explaining that it an Australian school system with the US equivalent of middle school, has been teaching their kids SMS text messaging as part of the language arts curriculum. SMS is a shortand way of writing that would have taken longer to communicate when written or spoken in formal English. Linguistics professor at Macquarie Universit, Pam Peters, explained that when she was forced to take Latin, she thought it would be useless because it’s a dead language. However, she didn’t take Latin to improve her Latin, she took it to improve her English. She used to have sloppy, poorly crafted ideas. Now she is literate and uses cohesive ideas. The same principle applies when teaching kids about SMS text messaging.

            This article has the same idea as Carolyn Adger, who helped write the article “Should We Worry of LOL.”Adger believes that texting is opening up a new world to people and she sees no need to worry because it is “expanding the writing skills of people.” Since an school is teaching their kids how to text, I think that Adgers would approve of this method.

            This article will help prove that texting can be seen as a helpful tool in the classroom. Studies are not necessary when proving that texting is not detrimental to children’s literacy skills, although it does help. It can be seen when you look back to your school days and see how your writing has improved.