by sammielee24 32 Replies latest social current
I worked in a bank from 2002-2006 as a teller.
"I thought perhaps, that the fact that most of the people doing their own banking don't read or write well enough to do it on their own, might tweak a few souls."
Hardly anyone would fill out their deposit slip/counter check. They either could not do it on their own or they were to lazy to do it. I always made the college students do it and offered to show them how.
As far as illiteracy in this country is concerned, it is a hopeless case.
Some decades back (maybe starting in the 1960s) some people put their heads together and decided to water down the subject of English grammar taught in the U.S. in grade schools. This is the critical time and place where grammar should be learned.
Maybe they felt it was too hard to teach to a changing population with classes that are too large. Maybe they felt there would be a crisis in the classroom for the overwhelmed teachers. I can't say I blame them. I wouldn't want to be teaching them either. So, they watered English down and made it "simple". The result is that today even some college graduates have marginal gramatical skills. At some point in grade schools they either stopped teaching or stopped emphasizing how to diagram a sentence. The result is that some people put a period at the end of what is not a complete thought. I occasionally forget how and where to use a comma and I am always looking up words in the dictionary (I couldn't live without it).
There are people who get an attitude and think emphasing grammar and spelling is like forcing religion down their throat. They pooh-pooh it and think all they need are computer tech skills.
Like other things, I think it is a lost cause at this point.
LHG
Maybe they felt it was too hard to teach to a changing population with classes that are too large. Maybe they felt there would be a crisis in the classroom for the overwhelmed teachers. I can't say I blame them. I wouldn't want to be teaching them either. So, they watered English down and made it "simple". The result is that today even some college graduates have marginal gramatical skills. At some point in grade schools they either stopped teaching or stopped emphasizing how to diagram a sentence. The result is that some people put a period at the end of what is not a complete thought.
Well said
In a similar vein, (No pun intended) I think the whole moronic, "Abstain from blood" argument that the JW's currently rely on would have less traction if the average JW had been taught a little more grammar in school.
When you try to explain why the partial predicate cannot be invoked apart from its context as an independent construction, you might as well be speaking Greek.
