[SpaceWeavil]

[inglor]

[Yavanie]

The local coffee shop here routinely rags on the stuff printed in the local editorials in the newspaper. They post comments on their display in front of the shop. yesterdays' :

"Conversate" is not a word."


I wonder what editor missed that?

[DeLynn]

Ahem. Clears throat and rises on soapbox.

I have seen these reasons for the lack of literacy, poor grammar, spelling, etc. today in several news articles. Do you agree?

1. Television, movies. Why read the book when you can watch the DVD? Never mind that the story was changed from the original. Why read a classic written in proper English with correct grammar that is “boring” when you can watch a show filled with 4-letter words, street slang, improper vocabulary and out and out garbage that sounds familiar to the ear? (Not all movies are like this, of course, but there are enough.)

2. Email, IM, Internet. Acronyms abound in messaging. Spell-checking and editing are bypassed as messages are dashed off in a hurry. We have all become slipshod and careless because we are in a hurry.

3. Hip-hop, rap music. Go ahead, throw your stones, but you must admit the music of today is worse than that of the 60s and 70s for language. Vernacular has creeped into our language to the point that most young people and some older folks are totally lacking in a decent vocabulary and can’t form a proper sentence.

4. School curriculums do not encourage reading for enjoyment. Essay writing is minimal in most reading classes at the primary level. Grammar and punctuation are taught for a few weeks instead of full years. Script (or handwriting) instruction is non-existent. As long as you can get it on paper, who cares what it looks like? John Hancock must be turning in his grave.

5. In Texas, curriculums are designed around the TAKS (formerly called TAAS) test. Students must pass this test in order to move to the next grade or graduate from high school. The test results also affect staffing and funding for schools. Students take practice tests and attend after school tutoring to make sure they will pass. This test was originally intended to evaluate students’ levels of achievement. Now it’s a pain you know where. Go figure.

6. News media has become fond of creating new words to sensationalize and emphasize news reports. So much is being put into printed word today that editors no longer “edit” for grammar, spelling and punctuation. They are concerned with content. How many news articles on Internet, in print or on television have poor grammar and incorrect spelling? How hard is it for authors to use a spell-checker?


In the literary market today, fiction accounts for less than 50% of book sales. Today’s reader purchases self-help, celebrity biographies, political exposes, and cookbooks. Would you believe science fiction/fantasy is about 1-2% of all sales?

Steps down from soapbox. Walking off into lurkdom.

[SpaceWeavil]

[Yavanie]

DeLynn, don't even get me started on the public school system in Texas, very sore subject with me. I am suprised they even let me in the front door of my kid's elementary school any more (oh Lord, here she comes again, could she possibly have any more complaints? like the first grade teacher can't spell tomarrow, or the educational diagnostician can't provide an educational evaluation in complete sentences, with proper grammar and correct spelling, but she's considered "the professional''?)[okay, off my soapbox]


ahem, anyway

no, we no longer teach our kids that there is a time a place for things, such as you can wear cut off jeans around the neighbor hood with your flip flops, but it is not appropriate - even if accepted now- that you wear said attire to church.

Howdy is an accepted greeting in Texas. But I wouldn't use it in formal correspondence!

[inglor]

Damn kids, can't even spell...

Funny thing is, now that I have posted on this thread and had my share of box time, I am much more particular about my spelling and grammar. Like right now, I'm looking at this and wondering if it is correct...

Bleh,where's the crazy lady... oops I mean Ghetto when you need her! Save us from our boxes!


Inglor the Old Coot

[ellisk]

[Viv]

Oddly, I think that technology (e-mail, IM, etc.) might actually give rise to a return to good old-fashioned letter writing. On Saturday I checked the post and found a fat envelope from my sister. When I opened it, I found a seven-page handwritten letter. Apparently she's working a crappy temp job where she has nothing to do (other than watch a phone until it rings) and her employer logs all her keystrokes. So, to pass the time -- and to keep her nosy bosses out of her personal thoughts -- she started handwriting letters. They started off kind of choppy, and you can definitely tell where lunch break intrudes, but in general, I think the writing is fairly high-quality. It was a neato nostalgic wowie to read those things. I almost hope she doesn't get a more fulfilling job soon.

[SpaceWeavil]

[NeumeIndil]

I'll second Space. It just seems to mean more when someone takes the time to sit down, find a pen and a piece of paper (if you're really lucky, stationary) and spend a few moments thinking only of communicating with you. Maybe my only-child status is showing here, but emails can be copied and forwarded and blind carbon copied and sent en mass; having a piece of paper in your hand with your name on it in someone else's handwriting is a moment of individuality in a mass output world. Taking the time to communicate by any means is appreciated, but taking the time to do it well is a greater sign of respect and love for one particular person than he or she may have experienced all day.

[Neniel]

Well, if you guys think your educational systems are bad, what am I supposed to say? Greek education is actually very math-oriented, as kids get to study Advanced and Abstract Mathematic Logic (hope it translates right!) in high school. Same thing with Physics and Chemistry (we were working on Quantum Mechanics, molecular orbitals and Schwandinger's equation in high school's second grade).

But when it came to actual reading and writing... nothing.

Not that there wasn't an effort. Litterature and Writing held an important part of our curriculum. But the way they were taught was a despair. In Litterature we simply read some pre-chosen texts and poems aloud... We spent more time memorizing this and that period in this and that writer's life than actually studying the writer's/poet's work. If, and I repeat, if we were lucky and got a teacher that really loved their job, then maybe we would get to do some actual commenting on the texts. And even then, it was purely technical. We were being taught what kind of answers we were supposed to give and that's it. I remember once raising my hand and saying I had a different opinion about a character's motives in the text we had been reading... Our professor was looking at me like I was crazy, claiming that what she said was the right thing and the matter was considered closed.

Writing was even worse. The subjects we were given to analyze were dreadful. To give you a hint, in the country-wide examinations that mark which university and faculty we may enter, we were asked to comment on "The existence of Intellectual People today". My first reaction to that was What the...?

I almost failed that one, naturally. It took my acing at every single other subject to barely make it into Medicine, my lifelong dream (even though I do nag about it from time to time ). But last year, I got to work with another student on a collaboration project for one of our courses. That guy had practically received a 100% in Writing, which I always admired him for. Until I got to read his part of the project that is. I swear half of his sentences were 9 lines long...

I ended up practically re-writing the whole thing on my own. Now, I don't claim that I deserved a higher grade in Writing myself, I know that it was one of my 'weak' subjects because I obsolutely loathed the idea of being handed some ridiculous subject and then write down what I was supposed to write, like a good little student. But how is it that someone who didn't even know what commas are got to ace in it and I was considered a failure?

So, in the end, the ptoblem is teachers don't know what it is they want their students to learn. Or at least, that's how I feel about it...

[inglor]

It all boils down to this:

I need to rule the world and all this nonsense would stop...



But seriously, back to what Viv and Species Weavil were saying, I think there is something about getting a letter that makes them priceless. Our addiction to recieving instant information makes a hand written letter so much more personal. I know when I was in Basic Training for the Army, a letter from home was worth its weight in gold. I remember begging for them from friends. My dad understood it (having been in the military) so he wrote me every week. I know a hand written Thank You Note has more effect. I find it oddly amusing that with all our communication advancement that hand written correspondence has actually increased in value.


Inglor the Magnificent

[NancyBrooke]

I take any excuse I can to write a letter, but then I'm one of those that gets flushed going into a stationary store ... all that nice clean paper ... pretty little notebooks ... and fountain pens! oooooooooh ....

[Diddler07]