Language is Peppered

by Kelly Knowlden

“Keep your nose to the grindstone.” “Too many irons in the fire.” “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” ”Nature abhors a vacuum.” “Make hay while the sun shines.”

You and I hear these kinds of phrases often in our conversations. They add a dimension to communication by making references to commonly understood ideas. The problem is that language and ideas suffer when the populace no longer understands nor uses these expressions. Hence, a good education will expose children to the cultural background of these expressions by three things: family ‘field trips,’ good reading together, and sending children to a school that values the historic content of education.

A trip to a grist mill might provide you with information about the “nose to the grindstone” quote. It was important for the miller to smell the flour periodically to tell if the grindstones were too close and therefore scorching the wheat. [It could cause fire or explosions!] Visiting a blacksmith would help you understand “too many irons in the fire.” The blacksmith would put irons in the fire to heat them up to bend. Too many at once would disallow him to effectively keep track of all of them. Wide reading will expose students to Lord Acton, a Catholic historian, that made many observations about governing bodies and individuals in his quote about power. Knowing a bit about Aristotle from a solid academic education will help understand his observation about how water pumps work and why he would say, “nature abhors a vacuum” and its application to situations where there is an empty space that usually gets quickly filled. Of course, knowing a bit about making hay from the local farmer [cutting hay too soon and it will be too green and spoil; too late and it may get wet from the rain and not be suitable for baling] will help interpret the need to use the window of opportunity at hand to get work done.

I mention all these not so that you will “brush up” on your understanding of American idioms, but rather to show the need to give children a good education while they are young so that they will be able to understand the world that we live in.