Yes, of course, it's the former. Millions of Americans can't tell, thanks to the public schools and their waste of your money.

So here's where we end up. Many allegedly educated Americans cannot avoid the simplest grammatical and spelling mistakes. Clearly, they have never been taught right from wrong, linguistically speaking.

Here are the most common examples now disfiguring blogs and comments by the billions: it's or its? Who's or whose? Know or no? Your or you're? Too, to, or two? Their, there, or they're? Loose or lose?

There are only a few of these dilemmas. The differences are obvious. They could be easily taught if someone bothered. Each day, students would write simple sentences using these words. By the end of the week, they would know them forever.

What have our schools done instead? They have engaged in a phony 75-year debate against the teaching of grammar and spelling, actually arguing that teaching something to children guarantees that they won't know it.

Please note the irony. Instead of taking a few hours to teach these things, our self-appointed experts waste hundreds of hours perpetuating sickly little sophistries to justify keeping children ignorant. That is the idiocy of our Education Establishment on full parade.

The good news is that people reading this column can participate personally in the inanity of K-12. Before, you may have experienced the weird excesses at a safe distance. Now you can wallow in them. Maybe if enough people express indignation, our so-called educators will start doing their job.

Here are some goofy titles, followed by their goofy articles, that illustrate the Anti-Grammar Crusade that has so befuddled what we once called Western civilization.

Is Teaching Grammar Necessary?

Over the years, the teaching of grammar has continued to be prominent in English and foreign language instruction, leaving less class time or student energy for students to speak, read, or write in those languages. ... [S]tudies have produced some clear and unequivocal conclusions: The teaching of formal grammar does not help a student's ability to speak, to write, to think, or to learn ... languages.

Lessons in spelling 'have no place in 21st century schools'

Schools should stop providing lessons in spelling and grammar because children can correct linguistic errors on their mobile phones, according to a leading academic[.] ... Sugata Mitra, professor of educational technology at Newcastle University, said good spelling and grammar was necessary "maybe a hundred years ago" but "not right now."

Education, just the facts. Here's why rote learning is wrong

I feel like a lot of people think that memorizing trains your brain, or helps you become better at learning, but, ultimately, there isn't any evidence that memorizing makes you any better at learning.

The Wrong Way to Teach Grammar

No more diagramming sentences: Students learn more from simply writing and reading[.] ... Happily, there are solutions. Just as we teach children how to ride bikes by putting them on a bicycle, we need to teach students how to write grammatically by letting them write.

To Grammar or Not to Grammar: That Is Not the Question!

For most students, teaching grammar as sentence analysis is another reason why the grammar doesn't transfer to student writing[.] ... Both our personal teaching experiences and the findings of research studies support the conclusion that most students do not benefit from grammar study in isolation from writing.

Why Don't U.S. Schools Teach Grammar?

The more researchers conducted studies looking for good reasons to teach grammar, the more they started to wonder whether any such reasons actually existed. This growing current of skepticism culminated in 1963 with a report titled Research in Written Comprehension. Looking at studies that had been done up to that point, the report concluded that "the teaching of formal grammar has a negligible or, because it usually displaces some instruction and practice in actual composition, even a harmful effect on the improvement of writing." In other words, the report passed a harsh verdict: teaching grammar is at best a waste of time and at worst something that actually hurts students[.] ... By 1985, the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) had adopted a resolution explicitly discouraging "the use of isolated grammar and usage exercises not supported by theory and research," instead urging that "class time at all levels must be devoted to opportunities for meaningful listening, speaking, reading and writing." The resolution also called on teachers to stop giving tests focused on grammar rather than the more general "language arts."

Okay, let's conduct two thought experiments. Suppose you have concocted all these cute little theories to justify not teaching grammar, and then you see the collapse of even rudimentary skills among the public. Emails and forums make this decline obvious. Would you relent? Would you give up your blatantly destructive sophistries? Not, apparently, if you expect to rise to the top in our Education Establishment.

Suppose you were a hostile foreign power trying to subdue this country. Wouldn't you engage in exactly this anti-grammar, anti-spelling folderol with the goal of increasing chaos, miscommunication, and disarray – in short, all the qualities we want to see in an opposing army?

To repeat an earlier point, the difference between your and you're is no big deal, much like the difference between 15 and 16. Children should not move on until they have mastered such basics, whether numbers or letters. Students merely have to write these things out several times, use them in simple sentences, do that for a while, and they will own them. In any case, somewhere in middle school and certainly high school, there should be a review, a careful taking of stock. Do kids know the difference between your and you're? If not, stop everything and fix the problem. Our brave educators resolutely refuse.

Another sick irony is that even as children are kept from memorizing correct usage, most are typically forced into memorizing hundreds of sight-words, a vastly more difficult project.

Notice how desperately our anti-American cohorts want to hurt us. They blather on year after year, claiming things that are totally absurd. You don't need to know spelling and grammar. If you try to learn them, you will be worse off than before.

Studying K-12 breeds cynicism. It doesn't matter what the Education Establishment says; you'll probably find it's harmful for students.

Link to original article here.

When I was growing up, there was an expectation that the onus for establishing a common understanding was on the conveyer of information. More and more it seems that society holds the recipient responsible for what is understood. Acceptance of bad grammar and writing may be a consequence, not a cause.

They want Newspeak.

Oxford comma helps drivers win dispute about overtime pay: https://www.theguardian.com/bo...e-about-overtime-pay

If it's not underlined in red, it must be spelled right.

Our public schools are in a dreadful state and need many things. They seem to teach political correctness more than correct English.

We had a football coach at the local parochial high school once. He took us from 1-9 each year to 2 straight undefeated seasons and state championships.
I asked him how he could do that.
He told me that this school had already established discipline. He said at other schools, it took 2 weeks of practice just to get the players disciplined enough to learn anything.
I think you could easily extend that to the classroom. Our local school graduates 92% of its graduates from college. Most of the other 8% just do not go.

To be fair, I still have trouble with it's and its.

So, there's that...

You know, I could spend all day simply correcting all the grammatical errors I see daily on this very forum and probably have a higher post count than I do now.

And that ain't no Schumer.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
You know, I could spend all day simply correcting all the grammatical errors I see daily on this very forum and probably have a higher post count than I do now.

Meaning what?

Just what do you happen to think is the average age of a SIGforum member? The average member of this forum has been out of school for years.

So, what's the point of your insult?

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
You know, I could spend all day simply correcting all the grammatical errors I see daily on this very forum and probably have a higher post count than I do now.

Meaning what?

Just what do you happen to think is the average age of a SIGforum member? The average member of this forum has been out of school for years.

So, what's the point of your insult?

Meaning simply that many here are quick to make fun of or ridicule anyone who appears uneducated due to a grammatical error on a sign or a t-shirt, yet I see those same people constantly make those same mistakes daily. And frankly, quite a few grammatical errors I see aren't typos or mistakes. They're deliberate because the poster simply doesn't know any better.

I'm talking about casting stones in glass houses, and I really don't know what age has to do with it; almost everyone is guilty of it.

I have a friend with a master's degree in engineering who can barely write a decent sentence. His spelling is hilarious. I met him online and figured he barely got out of high school. He owes his wife a lot, as she basically edits everything he does on the job (They work together, partners in a design firm). Without her, I don't see how he could keep his job before he became one of the bosses. Their son sends me texts his dad sends him. Some are like "What the hell is he talking about?" I think of those like they are some kind of puzzle.

Back in the early 1990s I spent an academic year teaching at a well known university. I taught 3rd and 4th year students. The remarkably poor level of familiarity with common rules of both writing and speaking that I found there was shocking.

When I was a college student back in the mid 1970s, I saw a fair amount of the same problems.

When I was in high school (mid 1950s) teachers graded every paper submitted by students, and grammar, spelling, etc all counted.

Now days it is not clear to me that the teachers themselves actually know how to write correct English, grammar, spelling, etc.

Our education system is in shambles. Classic example from here in Prince William county: Grandson in high school was failing in math. His mother checked into it. He told her that the match teacher could not speak English. She checked it out by monitoring one of the classes. Kid was right. The teacher was Asian and her "English" was virtually non-existent. And that was about 16 years ago.

Multitasking, stress, texting habits and typing on cell phones with small screens and finger boards are likely contributors to poor spelling and grammar. That's my excuse anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
I'm talking about casting stones in glass houses, and I really don't know what age has to do with it; almost everyone is guilty of it.

I see. You're a crusader against typographical errors and sentences that do not exude grammatical perfection.

Gosh, I didn't realize we had all these hypocrites in the forum. Glass houses, huh? Myyyyy goodness. I seem to have missed all this constant talk here about grammar.

Age is a factor because when I went to school, we weren't getting the commie indoctrination and we were actually taught proper English and grammar, unlike the people who have come out of public schools in the last 15 or 20 years.

quote:

Age is a factor because when I went to school, we weren't getting the commie indoctrination and we were actually taught proper English and grammar, unlike the people who have come out of public schools in the last 15 or 20 years.

They don't teach proper history lessons anymore either and the results are similar.
A quick study and anyone with any sense would quickly see the whole commie thing always ends in a disaster for predictable reasons. They act like it's the answer to all problems and don't realize it's the root cause of many.
I'm always disappointed by how many highly educated types don't seem to know about spell and grammar check. That just shows me the real problem is, they just don't know what they don't know or don't care.

Taught school for three years in the early 70's. It was getting bad then. Today for the most part it is a total disaster except for a very few bright spots. It seems as time goes on people get more stupid. If you doubt me just turn on the TV.God help us please.

Are we upset about the wasted tax dollars, or that there is no longer an emphasis on grammar and spelling in public school? You cold fill an encyclopedia with what the don't teach in public schools now. Fortunately we have CNN, and late night talk shows to complete the education of the younger generation. And taxes are meant to be wasted, what does the government do efficiently? Expecting a government run school to do a good job is insane. Everything else the government does is a debacle, expecting education to somehow be better is a cruel joke. Feel free to pick apart my grammar and spelling, I have a learning disability, so I have an excuse, and I drink a lot as well.