Loss of Language, Loss of Thought (the dumbing down of America)

IC ^ | Wolfgang Grassl

[Nabber]

“This word has been used in slang since at least the 80’s.”

How old are you?

That has been around since at least the 50s, as in “like Wow, Daddio...” (Maynard G. Krebs)

[Pan_Yans Wife]

From there, it is only a short way to redefining the meaning of marriage, family, torture, or the priesthood. Is this an instance of that "dictatorship of relativism" by which Pope Benedict XVI has characterized present-day Western culture?

An excellent, excellent article.

[Fiji Hill]

They act as if “like” is a recent phenomenon.

I recall an issue of MAD Magazine from 1960 that made fun of this expression. If I remember correctly, a sign in a library cautioning patrons to keep their voices down read: "Like, Quiet!"

[Peanut Gallery]

Hahah!

[Erasmus]

“Life is, like, an analogy.”

[MayflowerMadam]

Good for you. I figure the next generation will have no clue when it comes to spelling.

[matt1234]

Years ago, people took pride in speaking correctly and speaking well. Today, many youth take pride in speaking street slang like a common thug.

[abigailsmybaby]

I remember it starting with the “Valley Girl” speak that all the kids thought was so cool. Unfortunately it caught on in a big way and it just gets worse. Fingernails on a blackboard aren’t as bad as somebody who says “like” six times in a ten word sentence.

[Tax-chick]

You will lay the errors upon Mr. Gates’s feet. Lay: to put or place. Lie: to rest or recline; deliberately to speak falsely.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Oh, I know the difference, but many of today’s college kids don’t. When corrected, they always say, “My spell check said it was OK.”

[commish]

I remember it starting with the “Valley Girl” speak that all the kids thought was so cool. Unfortunately it caught on in a big way and it just gets worse. Fingernails on a blackboard aren’t as bad as somebody who says “like” six times in a ten word sentence.

Whoa, like down with the like bitchin 'tude dude. You are like so totally like harshing my smooth. Like You know what I like mean.

[Nepeta]

Similar damage done in all math areas with the “learning by the calculator” method.

While everyone needs to learn multiplication tables, I know from personal experience that if I do calculations without a calculator, I will make mistakes. Some gear in my brain doesn't quite work right. I took 4 quarters of calculus for engineering, and did well, but the checkbook suffers if I do not use a calculator. I also got through 3 quarters of physical chemistry, so my problem is not understanding the math, it's with the simple arithmetic. Very annoying.

[LibFreeOrDie]

Dumbing down isn’t limited to the current crop of high school/college students. The lack of reading comprehension among middle-age managers is astounding.

They want to see only “dashboards”: PowerPoint slides that indicate the status of projects by color-coding - red, yellow, or green.

[Miss Marple]

Actually, you don't have to go back to Dickens. Take a look at a fourth grade textbook from the early 1950's (when I was in school) and compare the level of language with a current book. The degradation in language is stunning.

Read some old newspapers from World War II. Longer paragraphs and a greater vocabulary were common, even in the unsophisticated Midwest.

Watch some of the movies of the 1930's. The actors spoke in longer sentences with complex sentence structure and a vocabulary rich with words we do not even hear today.

Part of this is due to the increased use of computers, which feed our "instant gratification" portion of the brain. I noticed last year that I was having difficulty reading long passages, and I believe it is because I am on the computer so much. I also noticed I hadn't been reading books much. I decided that I needed to bring back the long attention span I used to have, and have been reading books in the evenings.

Textbooks are also reinforcing the shorter attention span by catering to it. Just as Sesame Street created generations of children who wanted lessons that lasted no more than 2 minutes (complete with cartoons or puppets), the textbooks are now filled with pictures, cartoons and jolly bullet points to get the attention of children who have been raised on video games, computers, and TV.

Here is my scariest comment. I will bet that my post is one of the longest posts on this forum (in the replies). I have been here since 1998. Ten years ago it was quite common to see longer posts. (An example of this would be the late, great Common Tator.) I have been struck by how few posts are of any length now. And I will bet a lot of you had trouble reading this whole post, because it looked like too many words.

[NYer]

Take a look at a fourth grade textbook from the early 1950's (when I was in school) and compare the level of language with a current book. The degradation in language is stunning.

You make some excellent observations, Miss Marple. Like you, I attended elementary school in the 50's. Homework assignments were graded not only on their content but also on proper spelling and grammar. When my daughter (now 24) was in 8th grade, she brought home one of her better Social Studies reports, proud of the A she had received. Reading it through, I was appalled by the poor grammar and spelling errors. I called her teacher the following day to inquire about the oversight. She explained that students are graded on content, not grammar.

When you and I were growing up, we played outside. Neighbors exchanged conversations from their front porches. There was a genuine sense of comaradie. News broadcasts were limited to 30 minutes and covered the news, not scandals. Television time, if one were fortunate to have a set, was restricted. Foods were cooked from scratch. In fact, there were very few restaurants near our home in Queens NY. Today, on the other hand, chains of restaurants proliferate the same thoroughfares, neighbors rarely talk and the news broadcasts run 24 hours / day, filled with gossip and rumors. Worse yet is the amount of taxes we pay for something that is labeled education. Text messaging has replaced English and many of our youth prefer instant meals over those made from scratch.

Thank you both for imparting your memories and wisdom, to this thread.

[napscoordinator]

I am 41 so I guess I just thought it was the 80’s...lol.

[Larry Lucido]

LOL

I mean, um, laughing out loud.

[Larry Lucido]

I’m sure this exact article gets written every decade or so. Probably for the past several centuries.

Sure, folks today sign off with TTYL.

In the past, folks used to abbreviate stuff like RSVP. Lazy inarticulate bastards.

[elisheba]

"And the renaming of history, geography, economics, and civics into "Social Studies."

Oh, you are so right! "Social studies" is a discipline that is essentially empty except for green and leftwing propaganda. Commentators feign surprise when youngsters, and even plenty of adults by now, know nothing in the disciplines you have named. But they haven't been taught in the public schools for many years. Our schools have been working on creating Obama voters for a very long time, and they have succeeded. I find this alarming.

[elisheba]

I should mention also that as I moved through grade school, my school district began to drop phonics. The older teachers continued to teach it using their carefully preserved older teaching materials. Their students learned to read. Newer teachers were not provided with phonics materials to teach from. Gradually, more and more students in my school began to have more and more trouble learning to read and spell. This took place in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

What has happened to the discipline of English is most disheartening. It has become race and sex leftism, no real literature, no grammar, punctuation, spelling. Both of my daughter experienced this in high school.