a language rich environment

When I visited Sparkle's classroom just before winter break, I was taken aback how every bit of wall space was filled with posters of, um, well, of *stuff*. Word walls. Compass directions. Names of coins. Schedules and groups. Slogans. Etc. More stuff than the kids themselves could probably read, if only because some tiny print is crammed really high on the wall.

Then a friend of mine was talking about having posters up in her classroom. She is a physics teacher and had a hard time finding enough posters to put up on her walls to create a "language rich environment." So she hung a periodic chart on the wall to fill the space, even though no chemistry is taught in that classroom.

Huh? I've heard that a "language rich environment" is good for children. However, I think that plastering every available inch of wall space with educational posters is taking things too far. After a certain point, it's not a "language rich environment;" it is a cluttered environment.

Although Wander accuses me of filling up all the vertical spaces in the house, I think that there are other, better ways of filling our children's lives with language.