Why is it that people today seem to crave dumbness? It appears that the stupider you are, the more accepted you are among your peers (and everybody else). Since when did an educated mind become a bad thing?
It never ceases to surprise me that people cannot spell correctly in this day and age. It has been a long time since education was only for the rich (or the boys); we live in a century where education is not only an available comodity, but also a required one by law. So why is it that people can't grasp the basics of spelling, or punctuation and grammar?
There was a time, not so long ago, (but before the advent of the internet) that every family had something along the lines of "the Everyman's Encyclopedia" on their book shelves, which would be taken out each night and read aloud from by one of the many children, or by one of the parents of the average family. It was not at all surprising to see that children were named after famous writers, composers, artists, musicians of the day. Perhaps the parents thought that naming their offspring "Julius Caesar Smith" would make the poor child become something more than he would have become had he been named "John Christian Smith".
One of my grandfathers was named after a very famous poet here in Australia, and one of his older brothers was named after an equally famous artist and social commentator in Britain. Their parents were avid readers and believed in self-education as much as was possible for the time. Both my grandfather and his brother were born into an era where education went as far as about 12 years of age, unless you won a scholarship. When my grandfather reached 12, he returned to the family farm. He never went back to school, never went to university, and yet he was by far one of the most educated men I have ever known. Both of my grandfathers were early leavers of the school system, although both believed that education was a lifelong endeavour, and so both men were extremely well read, and well versed in the proper way of doing things. My own father is another example of the "leave school as soon as you can as you are needed at home" mentality. And yet, Dad has been one of the biggest influences in my education. He is the one from whom I have learnt most.
I cannot understand why and how people who get a very good education seemingly forget how to spell the minute they walk out the door of the school for the last time. Surely such knowledge stays with you for life?
It frustrates me that councils in England are going along with the 'dumbing down of the nation' by removing apostrophes from signs. I was shocked (and appalled) to find that Cambridge - the home of one of the world's finest universities - had joined in this horrendous crime on the english language.
Anyone who says that apostrophes are inconsequential should remember words like 'theirs'.
Theirs - it belongs to them
There's - ooh look, there (i)s something nice
Theres - does not exist as a word! (or if it does then it is probably a latin word that means something completely different)
They're - this one means 'they are', no matter how many times you see it used instead of 'their'! (the apostrophe stands for the letter 'a').
Apostrophes, or the very bad lack of them, annoy me. It is one of my pet hates. How hard is it to remember that an apostrophe just means that a letter is missing? 'It's' and 'Its' are NOT the same thing. One means 'It is' the other is something belonging to it. If in doubt, sound it out (or so my English teacher told me).
Apostrophes are equally not something that can be dropped in wherever you might feel like dumping them.
Sam's Warehouse, for example (a big cheap shop here in Australia) means, literally 'the warehouse belonging to Sam'.
Sams' Warehouse, however, means "the warehouse belonging to lots of Sams". It becomes a plural noun, not a singular noun, as it was when it was one warehouse belonging to one Sam.
Grrrrr. I loved grammar and punctuation at school. I loved the fact that apostrophes stood for missing letters, and that you could use them to your advantage when writing essays of a certain length, because "they are" is counted as two words, but "they're" is counted as one.
I hate seeing the bastardisation of the English language. It is a beautiful language, with many nuances. I love the fact that we can spell one word many different ways, and for each spelling differentiation, you get a different meaning.
Education is such a wonderful thing, and yet we seem not to value it. Take it away, and people would be clamouring at the very steps of government, saying it is their 'god-given right' to have education for all, and yet we discard it the first chance we get, claiming 'education is only for the young'. We ridicule and bully those who use big words, fancy words, difficult words, people who are seen to be reading books that aren't the current best seller, but are, in fact, things like Shakespeare, Mary Shelley, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Plato.
People fear the most the things they cannot understand.
Easy answer?
Educate thyself!
End of lecture.
1 comment:
I suspect the problem is two-fold:
1. No one takes the time to think about context or meaning.
2. A built-in spell checker is a poor substitute for a human editor/proof reader.
Take a look at the UK newspaper The Daily Mail: their web version is atrocious, clearly put together by people too concerned with publishing quickly rather than whether the article is accurate or uses correct spelling and grammar.
Far too often I read on their site the inappropriate use of "their", "there" and "they're" for example. They also have an issue with spelling, something they obviously think is optional. How hard is it, for example, to correct the word "color" by spelling it the English way?
With so called "professionals" setting such a lowly standard, is it any wonder the nation's school kids get the impression such things are unimportant? That's before they are subject to the influences of text messaging and mostly imported foreign media and computer games.
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