Hands up those who remember how many so-called konsonanti likwidi (liquid consonants) there are in the Maltese alphabet and, more importantly, what these consonants are.
We all covered this topic in our school days, some time during secondary school, but few of us would be in a position today to answer such a question.
And probably those few who do, have had their memory refreshed while helping their children with their homework.
We are in no way playing down the importance of studying the Maltese language. Although this newspaper is published in English, it is produced by Maltese employees and we are all in favour of keeping alive the Maltese language. Over the years, our language has been bombarded with foreign influences and unfortunately we have lost many native words as these have been replaced by others derived from other languages.
But the question is whether our children should be forced to learn these “trivialities” when it would be perhaps more important for them to learn other things. While it is good that grammatical issues are studied in schools, efforts should be directed more at helping young children to learn to speak and write Maltese correctly and fluently.
Maltese linguists will argue that by knowing which consonants need a vowel next to them to help pronunciation will inevitably lead the students to write Maltese in the way it should be.
All well and good, but at the same time it is sometimes felt that too much time and effort is placed on the finer details of the language when it is perhaps more important for the students to learn how to express themselves well in Maltese, verbally or in writing.
This is just one issue that needs to be seen to in our education system.
For example, how many of us remember how mountains were formed millions of years ago and the difference between a delta and an estuary? And how many of us learned so much about our prehistoric ancestors and then know little or nothing about modern history?
It is understandable that children do get an idea about the way people lived 5,000 years ago, but should so much time be spent on Neolithic life with the risk that little space is then afforded to what took place in the last century and what is taking place today?
What is more important – that children learn about carvings that were made at a time when humans did not know how to write, or the more recent events that have shaped the world as it is today?
Isn’t it better for children to learn about the different cultures in the different parts of the world, about the lifestyles in other countries and perhaps the different religions practised there, rather than having to memorise how long the River Nile is and how high Mount Everest is?
These will perhaps come in handy as one tries to answer questions while watching one of the many quizzes broadcast on both local and foreign television stations, but general knowledge goes beyond all this.
Our children need to get a better idea of what life is all about during their school years. And yet we still seem to concentrate more on learning things by heart rather than pushing our students to think and understand, analyse and form an opinion, evaluate and raise questions.
Our education system has improved a lot over the years, but we are not there yet. We still need to change the way our students learn in order to make better people of them.
To go back to the original argument, what’s the point of knowing which consonants in the Maltese alphabet are so-called liquid and then not knowing how to write a simple letter correctly?