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FDS:
Of course Holly writes "perfectly good American English". She isn't so far gone from New York that she can't recall her own language, now is she?
;-)
Jorden:
Here's a 30-second explanation of bussing.
Other Thoughts:
[[RANT MODE ON]]
The problem with the grammAr (notice the capitalized 'A', people) of the average American is largely the fault of the schools. What is taught in schools today is NOT good grammar. It's business grammar. We are taught that bastardized (note the 'z', the use of which I abhor) forms of words are perfectly acceptable. Nobody knows what a case or a tense or a declension is. Nobody can tell you what a participle is. Nobody notices when I dangle them, or when I end the sentence with a preposition - and they can't tell me the difference between those two things.
Nobody knows how to spell - why bother when a spell checker does it for you? Nobody knows grammar - why bother, when the grammar checker catches that? Nevermind that the grammar checker on Word has worse grammar than a retarded 8-year old howler monkey. Did it ever stop to think that I _KNOW_ I'm using the passive voice? Or that I _KNOW_ I'm using the word "which" instead of the word "that"?
And the worst part is that Word's grammar rules are based on current grammar BOOKS, most of which have extremely WRONG information.
This brings me to another point - our entire educational system is flawed. Our children are taught untruths at best, and outright intentional LIES at worst.
Some of the lies are old lies.
"The Indians gave corn (which they call Maize) to the Pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving." (or even "Thanksgiving was first celebrated by the Pilgrims...")
"Columbus discovered America."
Some are new lies.
"America bombed Hiroshima because WE ARE BAD PEOPLE! BAD BAD BAD!"
Some are theories, passed off as gospel truth.
"We evolved from single celled organisms in the slow steady march of evolution..."
(Nota bene: Evolution, while perfectly true and valid as a theory, has been shown to work in fits and starts and great flurries of activity influenced more by external forces than by internal random mutation. This has been known for a hundred years now!)
And some of them are just misprinted facts which the teacher makes the kids memorize. Some science books have the moon listed as half the size of the earth, some have it as a tenth the size of the earth. One book I saw recently had the distance from the sun listed as 50 million miles, one had it listed as 200 million miles. (Both are very wrong...)
I've given examples in history and science. But we were talking about grammar, correct? Fine, consider this...
"Sentence Diagramming" is the most common way to teach children English Grammar today. Yet nobody seems able to diagram simple sentences. What's the shortest English sentence? Many people say "I am." (It has a subject and a verb, right?)
I say "Be." (or "Do." or "Go.") It's a command, making the reader the subject by implication. Others will argue the point about how "I." could be a sentence under certain conditions. Yet none of today's school children will learn about implied subjects. None of them will learn about the various types of phrases. It's just not in the curriculum any more.
They WILL, however, learn Spanish. It's required in many state school systems now. You have to take Spanish in the first and second grades. This is RIDICULOUS. If you want to make children learn a language, GREAT! I learned several (admittedly two of them are never spoken, but that's another story), and everyone should learn at least one. But to make schoolchildren who don't know how to READ English yet (don't get me started on social promotions) learn Spanish is just counterproductive and stupid.
My brother came home from second grade (admittedly this was a few years back but things have only gotten worse) and my father said "Jeremiah, what did you learn in Mathematics today?" and my brother said "what's that?". My mom then said "Math!", and my brother said "Oh, ok! With colors or with numbers? We haven't done numbers yet. That's next month."
Upon examination, the teacher was unable to explain to anyone's satisfaction how you can teach a child mathematics using colors. Counting beans, maybe. Little blocks that get stacked on other little blocks, sure. But "green is bigger than blue" is just plain stupid.
Yet it's in the school systems. Why? I have no idea.
Nobody wants their kids to take these standardized tests. Why not? Because they wouldn't pass. They argue that the teachers will just teach for the test and not teach general knowledge. Sorry, folks. That doesn' wash - the test TESTS general knowledge. If your kid can't pass the test they shouldn't graduate.
As far as I'm concerned, if you can't score a reasonable number on the SAT's (and I'm not sure what that number is any more, since they made the SAT's easier in order to cater to minorities), you shouldn't go to college at all - you should stay in High School where you belong. End of story.
[[/RANT MODE OFF]]
Whew!
- Gurm
------------------
Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.
Of course Holly writes "perfectly good American English". She isn't so far gone from New York that she can't recall her own language, now is she?
;-)Jorden:
Here's a 30-second explanation of bussing.
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">There used to be "black schools" and "white schools" (I'm oversimplifying on purpose) in urban areas. The racists in charge felt that this was the best way to keep racial problems from arising - just keep the black kids out of the white schools and then nobody will beat them up! Plus it was easier because all the blacks lived in one part of town and the whites in another (again I'm oversimplifying) so they just built extra schools in the black areas. Hence schools were almost exclusively racially segregated.
The government, in its wisdom, decided to implement a perfectly well-intentioned plan to force desegregation by bussing kids across town. But not only did they bus the black kids to white schools, they bussed (I know bussed isn't really a verb but I'm feeling lazy today) the white kids to black schools as well. All of this was done at random (or supposedly at random), so the parents had NO say at all.
Now that the neighborhoods are (mostly) desegregated, bussing shouldn't be necessary, right? But it is still in force, making some poor kids sit through an hour-long ride across town to go to school with people they don't know, in a location their parents can't easily get to.
How do we fix it without allowing the old segregation to creep back in? Good question. one best left for the pundits.</font>
The government, in its wisdom, decided to implement a perfectly well-intentioned plan to force desegregation by bussing kids across town. But not only did they bus the black kids to white schools, they bussed (I know bussed isn't really a verb but I'm feeling lazy today) the white kids to black schools as well. All of this was done at random (or supposedly at random), so the parents had NO say at all.
Now that the neighborhoods are (mostly) desegregated, bussing shouldn't be necessary, right? But it is still in force, making some poor kids sit through an hour-long ride across town to go to school with people they don't know, in a location their parents can't easily get to.
How do we fix it without allowing the old segregation to creep back in? Good question. one best left for the pundits.</font>
[[RANT MODE ON]]
The problem with the grammAr (notice the capitalized 'A', people) of the average American is largely the fault of the schools. What is taught in schools today is NOT good grammar. It's business grammar. We are taught that bastardized (note the 'z', the use of which I abhor) forms of words are perfectly acceptable. Nobody knows what a case or a tense or a declension is. Nobody can tell you what a participle is. Nobody notices when I dangle them, or when I end the sentence with a preposition - and they can't tell me the difference between those two things.
Nobody knows how to spell - why bother when a spell checker does it for you? Nobody knows grammar - why bother, when the grammar checker catches that? Nevermind that the grammar checker on Word has worse grammar than a retarded 8-year old howler monkey. Did it ever stop to think that I _KNOW_ I'm using the passive voice? Or that I _KNOW_ I'm using the word "which" instead of the word "that"?
And the worst part is that Word's grammar rules are based on current grammar BOOKS, most of which have extremely WRONG information.
This brings me to another point - our entire educational system is flawed. Our children are taught untruths at best, and outright intentional LIES at worst.
Some of the lies are old lies.
"The Indians gave corn (which they call Maize) to the Pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving." (or even "Thanksgiving was first celebrated by the Pilgrims...")
"Columbus discovered America."
Some are new lies.
"America bombed Hiroshima because WE ARE BAD PEOPLE! BAD BAD BAD!"
Some are theories, passed off as gospel truth.
"We evolved from single celled organisms in the slow steady march of evolution..."
(Nota bene: Evolution, while perfectly true and valid as a theory, has been shown to work in fits and starts and great flurries of activity influenced more by external forces than by internal random mutation. This has been known for a hundred years now!)
And some of them are just misprinted facts which the teacher makes the kids memorize. Some science books have the moon listed as half the size of the earth, some have it as a tenth the size of the earth. One book I saw recently had the distance from the sun listed as 50 million miles, one had it listed as 200 million miles. (Both are very wrong...)
I've given examples in history and science. But we were talking about grammar, correct? Fine, consider this...
"Sentence Diagramming" is the most common way to teach children English Grammar today. Yet nobody seems able to diagram simple sentences. What's the shortest English sentence? Many people say "I am." (It has a subject and a verb, right?)
I say "Be." (or "Do." or "Go.") It's a command, making the reader the subject by implication. Others will argue the point about how "I." could be a sentence under certain conditions. Yet none of today's school children will learn about implied subjects. None of them will learn about the various types of phrases. It's just not in the curriculum any more.
They WILL, however, learn Spanish. It's required in many state school systems now. You have to take Spanish in the first and second grades. This is RIDICULOUS. If you want to make children learn a language, GREAT! I learned several (admittedly two of them are never spoken, but that's another story), and everyone should learn at least one. But to make schoolchildren who don't know how to READ English yet (don't get me started on social promotions) learn Spanish is just counterproductive and stupid.
My brother came home from second grade (admittedly this was a few years back but things have only gotten worse) and my father said "Jeremiah, what did you learn in Mathematics today?" and my brother said "what's that?". My mom then said "Math!", and my brother said "Oh, ok! With colors or with numbers? We haven't done numbers yet. That's next month."
Upon examination, the teacher was unable to explain to anyone's satisfaction how you can teach a child mathematics using colors. Counting beans, maybe. Little blocks that get stacked on other little blocks, sure. But "green is bigger than blue" is just plain stupid.
Yet it's in the school systems. Why? I have no idea.
Nobody wants their kids to take these standardized tests. Why not? Because they wouldn't pass. They argue that the teachers will just teach for the test and not teach general knowledge. Sorry, folks. That doesn' wash - the test TESTS general knowledge. If your kid can't pass the test they shouldn't graduate.
As far as I'm concerned, if you can't score a reasonable number on the SAT's (and I'm not sure what that number is any more, since they made the SAT's easier in order to cater to minorities), you shouldn't go to college at all - you should stay in High School where you belong. End of story.
[[/RANT MODE OFF]]
Whew!
- Gurm
------------------
Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.
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