Posted on 04/11/2021 10:06:38 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Bill Bryson, in his iconic travelogue about the United Kingdom, “Notes from a Small Island,” observes that nearly all tourist leaflets are “depressingly illiterate, particularly with regard to punctuation.”
He sarcastically promises that “if I see one more tourist leaflet that says ‘Englands Best’ or ‘Britains Largest’ I will go and torch the place.”
Bryson’s book was published in 1995. Since then, anecdotal evidence as well as statistical surveys reveal that literacy problems have persisted, not just in the United Kingdom but also in Australia.
The existence of these problems may even be gleaned from the email culture that has developed since Bryson wrote his book. Indeed, when reviewing email messages sent by students to their classmates and to their teachers, the extent of the problem would easily be exposed.
Many email messages do not start with a proper salutation anymore—as if this courtesy is a discarded 19th century relic of the past when people were still writing proper letters.
Often, if email messages have a salutation at all, it will probably be “Hi.” They may not have a proper beginning and ending. The construction of sentences is often ungrammatical, and the incorrect use of punctuation, specifically the apostrophe—lamented by Bill Bryson—routinely defiles the English language.
The teaching of language skills, including grammar, punctuation, and spelling have always been a part of the curriculum in primary schools in Australia. But, as recently observed by Dr. Yaegan Doran and Dr. Sally Humphrey, “Once the curriculum moves to high school … much of the connection between language and meaningful writing disappears.”
The sad reality is that many Australians cannot properly spell, write, or read. This malaise is probably a consequence of the remarkably prominent position of Systemic Functional Grammar in the field of English-language education in Australia.
(Excerpt) Read more at theepochtimes.com ...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/13/nyregion/ny-regents-teacher-exams-alst.html
< /SARC>
If you do not get the joke, you probably went to public school.
No blustering blastes, the weather calme and milde:
Good Lord the sudden rarenesse of the thing
A sudden feare did bring, to man and childe,
They verely thought, as well in field as Towne,
The earth should sinke, and the houses all fall downe.
Well let vs print this present in our heartes,
And call to God, for neuer neede we more:
Grammar is racist.
The Sainted Sister Lois would freak out over that.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/fewer-vs-less
My PhD boss used to begin messages with Hi....
And no coma, or proper punctuation. His e mail messages were completely inscrutable even if I read and re read them.
Hooked on Whatever.
PING!
LOL. Too funny!
PS I did go to public school.
Yes, it’s a big problem?
If it’s apostrophe’s they need, we’ve got plenty.
Illiteracy is hardly a “crisis,” at least not the way we think of the word. Look at one of those red county/blue county maps. There are the illiterates. There are the schools that produce them. There are the school boards and teacher unions churning them out year after year. They can’t read or write past the 8th grade level. Can’t do math past the 5th grade level. People who lack the intellectual capacity to do the math to see socialism doesn’t work, and lack the intellectual capacity to tell propaganda when the read it. Hear it. Or, especially, while chanting it. It’s not so much a “crisis” as it it is an opportunity.
First off. Grammer is clearly racist and a relic of white supremacist patriarchal tyranny.
Second. There is no time to waste teeching grammer and stuff cuz we gots to sayv duh world cuz globull warming and stuff.
Aliteracy is worse.
Spell check says aliteracy is not a word. Dictionary says it is.
Two things derailed that plan. One was a visit to the Milwaukee Journal and Sentinel editorial offices and publication facility. That gave me some inkling that it wasn't a field I wanted to go into. The second lesson was the taking of a Journalism usage and grammar test which was required before you could declare as a Journalism Major. It was pathetically simple and I nearly aced it. On the way out of the exam administration, all I heard was bitching and moaning from students about how difficult it was. Later I realized that many of the students in Journalism (or the closely related Communication Arts department) ended up selling advertising for television or radio stations or networks. Or working in fields having nothing to do with journalism training.
I declared as an Economics major and never looked back. When the flourishing of the internet devoured all the ad revenue that theretofore kept newspapers alive, I understood I had dodged a bullet in choosing a better path. That was more than 40 years ago and even then illiteracy was rampant among those who were training to go into writing as a vocation.
We need “fewer” jokes like this, because of the difference between a public school in the US and a public school in the UK.
Most of their prospective [white] teachers saw the handwriting on the wall and did not apply in NYC unless they were completely starry-eyed dopes. I’ve seen for myself that the black, Hispanic, etc. teachers do NOT have a complete command of English for the most part (with a few notable exceptions). They often use street language instead of correct grammar. Moreover, as most of the students pathetically failed English, the DumblASSio administration, executing the typical libtard remedy for failure, simply removed requirements to learn grammar. This may have helped stats in the short term (what he was after), but would obviously spell disaster for the long term, limiting the semi-illiterate to low level jobs or community colleges. The students figure, “I only hear that fancy so-correct English in school—my parent(s), friends, family speak street, so why should I speak proper English?” They have little ability to see beyond their present situation or to aspire to better.
They are providing fuel to the companies insisting they need foreign workers; never mind STEM - many young people are functional illiterates.
I spent 25 years in Mechanical Engineering. I would say that about 1/4 of my peers had never touched a wrench.
Illiteracy is hardly a “crisis,” at least not the way we think of the word. Look at one of those red county/blue county maps. There are the illiterates. There are the schools that produce them. There are the school boards and teacher unions churning them out year after year. They can’t read or write past the 8th grade level. Can’t do math past the 5th grade level. People who lack the intellectual capacity to do the math to see socialism doesn’t work, and lack the intellectual capacity to tell propaganda when the read it. Hear it. Or, especially, while chanting it. It’s not so much a “crisis” as it it is an opportunity.”
It is an incredible opportunity for our adult sons/daughter/nephews nieces.
It will be even more of an incredible opportunity for our grand kids and grand nieces/nephews.
It has been an opportunity for my generation and adult children.
It is an opportunity now, for those of us, who can read, do math and use computers to work not play games 24/7.
Good Private schools, trade schools, colleges, and universities provide the educational ladders to live a good life.
If you hate your kids, send them to public b$ factories posing as schools.
People in the U.K. are no more different than others, although they are different from others in some ways. ;)
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