The Death Of English

[Madeline]

washingtonpost.com

Discuss, or the grammar nazi will get you.

 

[Granny]

This has been going on for quite some time. It's everywhere - and should not come as a surprise to the Washington Post. People no longer know how to spell and cannot differentiate the meanings/usage of some words - know and no; where and were; when and win; their and there; the list goes on.

The state of education in the US is a national disgrace and I don't see it getting better anytime soon unless we start demanding that teachers are themselves educated - meaning that they should get the education in lower school so that they are academically fit to get into a college or university. Academics should be the standard and not trying to meet a racial quota of students. People who have worked hard and have great grades get denied entry simply because all spaces are taken. Should minorities be excluded from higher education? Absolutely not; but they need to be accepted on academic performance.

 

[Mr. H.]

I'm always correcting grammar on tv and in the newspapers. Wife/daughter got me a t-shirt last Christmas that reads "I am the grammarian about whom your mother warned you". Of course, I even corrected THAT by saying "no- it should read 'I am the grammarian about whom you were warned by your mother'". LOL

Yeah - sad indeed!

 

[Madeline]

I suppose English has to migrate to accept new words, new usages, etc. But there have to be some vestages of agreed-upon grammar rules, etc. or else how will we tweat one another?

 

[Middleman]

i dont no wat u r talkin bout, this is dum.

 

[Madeline]

Dum? Dum?

Then you tell me, Middleman, what is a "doggy dog world"?

 

[strollingbones]

granted i am not the person to be posting on this....

who and whom, one is a noun one is an object...it makes me crazy

ending sentences with a preposition....

what are you? will do....you dont have to ad the at...where are you at?

when you use your big words make sure you know what the big word means.....sometimes using big words just gets you in trouble.

 

[Madeline]

You have your own style, bones. You're the ee cummings of USMB...I never have any trouble following your posts.

 

[Sunni Man]

You're the ee cummings of USMB...

LOL Yes, she is

 

[midcan5]

Ah come on proper English aint gonna go away, it just sorta is under going a change. Dats a fact. Now dumb is kinda smart, check our political candidates if in you needs proofs.


Each year I ask my wife about her new group of students, and in the past, I'd say eight years or so, she claims they are dumber than the year before. And this is not just her opinion, but the opinion of lots of teachers in public, private, and way too expensive private schools. One college prof who part times today, calls some colleges 'check schools,' write the check and you graduate. Whenever I read that it is the teachers fault, I wonder how that could be given the teachers I know. It ain't the teachers folks, it is the students, their parents, and American culture.

What is a well known American criticism today? You are a pinhead, intellectual elitist. What is praised today (and in the past) you are a common sense kind of rough and tumble guy or gal. No need to give examples. So why? Some guesses. Because we are a nation of individuals and education is a collective endeavor requiring you listen to the other. Rich people dropped out of school, thus school is useless. I'm gonna be a [pick a sport] star, a singing star, an actor, a politician. Why do I need algebra, sentence structure, reading comprehension, math, or science? I added politician for fun, they still seem a bit educated, but that could change in November. Wall street and money are calling!


Finland as counter example: "Not surprisingly, in a land where literacy and numeracy are considered virtues, teachers are revered. Teenagers ranked teaching at the top of their list of favorite professions in a recent survey. Far more graduates of upper schools in Finland apply for admission to teacher-training institutes than are accepted. The overwhelming majority of those who eventually enter the classroom as a teacher make it a lifelong career, even though they are paid no more than their counterparts in other European countries." Lessons From Finland: The Way to Education Excellence | CommonDreams.org

"At the heart of Finland's stellar reputation is a philosophy completely alien to America. The country of 5.3 million in an area twice the size of Missouri considers education an end in itself - not a means to an end. It's a deeply rooted value that is reflected in the Ministry of Education and in all 432 municipalities. In sharp contrast, Americans view education as a stepping stone to better-paying jobs or to impress others. The distinction explains why we are obsessed with marquee names, and how we structure, operate and fund schools."


Anti-Intellectualism in American Life [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Anti-Intellectualism-American-Life-Richard-Hofstadter/dp/0394703170/ref=pd_sim_b_4]Amazon.com: Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (9780394703176): Richard Hofstadter: Books[/ame]


[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Dumbest-Generation-Stupefies-Americans-Jeopardizes/dp/1585426393/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30) (9781585426393): Mark Bauerlein: Books[/ame]


[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Amusing-Ourselves-Death-Discourse-Business/dp/014303653X/ref=pd_sim_b_2]Amazon.com: Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (9780143036531): Neil Postman, Andrew Postman: Books[/ame]


"This is the truth that the Great Education Myth aims to obscure. It's not that schools are ill-equipped to train STEM specialists. It's that the additional students who might boost our STEM workforce are choosing to avoid STEM majors because they see an economy that is more hospitable to careers in Wall Street casinos rather than in high-tech innovation -- a financialized economy based less on creating tangible assets than on encouraging worthless speculation.

This doesn't mean that our education system is perfect. But it does mean that without reforming the trade, tax and regulatory policies that reward high-tech outsourcing and incentivize careers in finance, our schools can never be an engine of value-generating information-age jobs." The neoliberal bait-and-switch - Education - Salon.com


old debates on site.

http://www.usmessageboard.com/education-and-history/108215-education-then-and-now.html
http://www.usmessageboard.com/education-and-history/108215-education-then-and-now-2.html#post2074607
http://www.usmessageboard.com/educa...liberals-in-the-classroom-11.html#post1749647

 

[Madeline]

Today is National Punctuation Day!

Have a cupcake, cupcakes...

Which one is your favorite? I do ♥ the ampersand.

 

[Baruch Menachem]

People have been predicting the death of English since Johnson's day.





That's Samuel, not Lyndon.

 

[Madeline]

 

[akositesla]

Language is dynamic. Changes don't quite equate to the English language's "death".

 

[Mr. H.]

I was a substitute teacher for several years. Often times the kids would approach me with something like "I ain't got no pencil". I'd pretend to correct them by saying "you mean, 'I don't ain't got no pencil'". Blank stare- "uh yeah". I miss the kids. They meant well.

 

[editec]

There is no proper English.

There is English that people speak well enough to communicate their thoughts and THAT is the language.

Oh, but the way?

Ending a sentence with a preposition isn't a crime against the language.

I won't go on.

 

[Sunni Man]

Is it proper for white kids to speak in the ebonics dialect??

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw5cN6neql8[/ame]

 

[Trajan]

I admit I never paid much attention to grammar in my formative years. Later on in HS I read an article by Buckley, where in he was 'accused' of being a vitriolic sesquipedalian (Sesquipedalian - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary) so I took to learning a new word every month for years, some are admittedly arcane but I like using them and I think or hope that someone who reads one will go look it up instead of just using the verbal inflection, sentence structure and surrounding words as a sense of its real definition.... I did that yet ignored proper structure and grammar....oh and my use of ellipsis too, my bad.