Are They Teaching Our Kids?

[Smith]

dudes and dudets. i just started high school a while ago. i can tell you. stuff that i learned in grade 7 i should be learning now.

as for bad grammer its called "slang" . us kids today use "slang" because were 2 lazy 2 say the full word

[Biggles]

Hobbes

You are right, I was a little perturbed at the venom in the response to what I thought was nothing more than a throw away line to BigBoab.

My reaction now looks somewhat isolated as the original comment by Mr. Fist has completely vanished.

Oh well - back to sorting out the ills of the world and thank you to those who did not deem me (entirely) barking mad.

[Gemby!]

Originally posted by TheCanuk@30 October 2003 - 02:19
dudes and dudets. i just started high school a while ago. i can tell you. stuff that i learned in grade 7 i should be learning now.

as for bad grammer its called "slang" . us kids today use "slang" because were 2 lazy 2 say the full word

ok my grade 7 is the beginning of high school

so im real confused here

[thewizeard]

Originally posted by hobbes@29 October 2003 - 23:55

Funny how we can all shrug off insults to ourselves, but mess with our children, watch out!.

Same with me Hobbes. I can put up with a lot, but "they" better keep their hands off of our children!

I felt saddened by that post yesterday, I am sure I was not alone.

Biggles, your children are very fortunate indeed to have you as their father.

[bigboab]

I would like to go back to the start of the thread, if I may. If the person who worded these questions had used proper English, then there would have been no dubiety. The more students read books that are written in proper English, the more they develop the art of writing in proper English.

Unfortunately books are very similar to art, in the fact that books become 'IN' whether their writers are capable of writing or not. My house is crammed with books on every topic imaginable. This was available to me and my children. If I did not know the answer to a question then the answer, more times than not, was in the house.

I started of at school with the children's classics, Dickens, Stevenson etc. As I progressed I moved on to the 'heavier' stuff like 'The Seven Pillars of Wisdom', 'Ulysses' , 'Decline an Fall' and 'Crime and Punishment' by that computer writer. ( DOS-TOY-F-KEY ) Sorry could not resist that. I found that the further up the ladder that you went the harder it was to understand what the author was trying to say. My personal opinion was that if you don’t understand what a book is about then that book has not been written properly. My quick critical analysis of a couple:

Seven Pillars of Wisdom: An early travel guide to the Middle East.

Ulysses: An inventory of everyday items in the turn of the century Dublin.

I will get flamed for that probably. To continue, when my children went through the same process, their teacher's choice of literature was off putting to say the least. The prime example being 'Death of a Salesman' (Do I hear groans? ). If you try and teach pupils this type of material they quickly lose interest.

I think I have strayed slightly. What I am trying to say is, if you don’t understand a book don’t read it. Especially ones that are not written, using proper English. (Wot I use B) ) That way, maybe writers will start writing understandable material. Before the flaming starts, I will say that there were badly written books in my day. Not quite as many as today though.

I have not yet mentioned the fact that my wife and children come first in all this. (Although one of them is limited to Mills and Boon ). Shoulder to shoulder Biggles!