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I weep and I fear...

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  • I weep and I fear...

    ... for the future of humanity.

    None of today's patrons were the least bit sucky. Alll were polite and friendly. they all had reasonable requests. However there two who made me weep and fear a bit.

    They were a couple of students from a local College. Both seemed to be intelligent, polite and mature. Each of them was working on a different project. The young man's project was an investigation on the art of Mali. The Lady was researching ancient ceiling decoration.

    When they were completing the forms that all new researchers must complete, I heard the young lady ask the young man, "How do you spell 'Ceiling'?" OK, many people have problems with the 'i' and 'e' bit but it did make me wonder about her writing skills. [Strike one].

    A few moments later , the young man asked me, "In what part of Africa is Mali?" [Strike two].

    I really started to weep and fear when I filed their patron sheets. The young Lady filled in the line asking for 'a topic of research' with [sic] 'Acint Egyt art. Sielings.' This was written in very careful printing. I couldn't mistake what she wrote.

    These are College students who are not ready for College. It isn't their fault , The young man and woman I met today are intelligent enough for College. However they have been sold bill of goods in their earlier education. They're happily going into College without the basic skills they need to succeed at a University level.

    Where did we go so terribly wrong?
    Research is the art of reading what everyone has read and seeing what no one else has seen.

  • #2
    In all honesty nothing has gone wrong.

    A stupid/uneducated/ignorant populous is easier to control than a well educated one. By limiting the education of it's population it forces the majority into low paying bottom rung jobs. It's easier to pass laws that wouldn't go over in a highly educated majority.

    If you want to rule with an iron fist you have to keep the populous ignorant.

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    • #3
      I could hug you.
      You're focusing on the problem. If you focus on the problem, you can't see the solution. Never focus on the problem! --From Patch Adams

      Comment


      • #4
        I believe it's called the N.E.A.

        Comment


        • #5
          Ignorant people seem to be the only ones going to college these days. Smart people, somehow, can't seem to afford to make it (I'm talking about myself and other smart people I know in the last part of that sentence).

          It's a sad place, indeed.
          Ridiculous 2009 Predictions: Evil Queen will beat Martha Stewart to death with a muffin pan. All hail Evil Queen! (Some things don't need elaboration.....) -- Jester

          Ridiculous 2010 Predictions: Evil Queen, after escaping prison for last years prediction, goes out and waffle irons Rachel Ray to death. -- SG15Z

          Ridiculous 2011 Prediction: Evil Queen will beat Gordon Ramsay over the head with a cast-iron skillet. -- FireHeart

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          • #6
            Quoth Evil Queen View Post
            Ignorant people seem to be the only ones going to college these days. Smart people, somehow, can't seem to afford to make it (I'm talking about myself and other smart people I know in the last part of that sentence).

            It's a sad place, indeed.
            Yeah it's getting hard these days. With budget cuts for student assistance and rising tuition.

            I'm lucky my tuition is paid by scholarship(except for the stupid fees which I disagree with but what can you do) So all I really need is to pay for living expenses. The debt won't come for another year after I start law school.
            How was I supposed to know someone was slipping you Birth Control in the food I've been making for you lately?

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            • #7
              Quoth LibraryLady View Post
              I really started to weep and fear when I filed their patron sheets. The young Lady filled in the line asking for 'a topic of research' with [sic] 'Acint Egyt art. Sielings.' This was written in very careful printing. I couldn't mistake what she wrote.

              These are College students who are not ready for College. It isn't their fault , The young man and woman I met today are intelligent enough for College. However they have been sold bill of goods in their earlier education. They're happily going into College without the basic skills they need to succeed at a University level.

              Where did we go so terribly wrong?
              1) 9 out of 10, if not 99 out of 100 there is a string of teachers back their who bashed their heads against this student and could not, despite much effort, find the porous part of the skull. This is why I sorta approve of the 4 Block plan for Language Arts (I dont want to go into the whole thing here). Whole LA looked good on paper but S-U-C-K-E-D.

              2) I actually recognize those spelling tricks- I suspect she's in science or engineering. BEFORE a bunch of you get onto me, I have seen a certain trend of ineptness with language that really does trend that way- subject #1 is my husband. I am not saying every sci/engineer does it, but like I say, there is a recognizable trend. We have had this discussion before- English does not follow the right logic, and there are too many exceptions to that are too uncategorized to learn. *I* don't understand this- the rules work for the majority, and you memorize the oddballs or look them up. He does things with numbers I do not comprehend (my discalcula doesn't help me). It is really a brain thing, i'm not sure how to counter it.

              Comment


              • #8
                I think it's the general degredation of public schools, at least in part. I'm still proofing papers that have things like putting the wrong "its, it's" or the "their, there, they're." (And I'm a history major, so writing and proper grammar is essential for making arguments or presenting events in a clear manner.) I don't seem to recall ever being taught that stuff very persistently in high school, I picked it up myself by reading tons and carefully watching my own writing.
                Would you like a Stummies?

                Comment


                • #9
                  I gave up trying to take classes at the local community college because the classes always ended up cancelled from not enough students signing up. The problem was that most students were enrolled in remedial classes, making up for all the time they wasted in school (and a lot of it was the students fault, because if a student wants to learn, they'll find a way), and were now having to pay to learn what they could have learned for free in middle and high school.

                  Meanwhile, the regular and advanced courses weren't getting enough students. Now I'm studying online through another community college.
                  Labor boards have info on local laws for free
                  HR believes the first person in the door
                  Learn how to go over whackamole bosses' heads safely
                  Document everything
                  CS proves Dunning-Kruger effect

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Quoth Raieth View Post
                    If you want to rule with an iron fist you have to keep the populous ignorant.
                    "populace", just fyi.
                    GK/Kara/Jester fangirl.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Ummm.... look at your president. That should be a clue....

                      Anyways, a) I'd wager it's a few factors, and in particular in this case, it is the teachers and their system. These days, some teachers are, to be quite frank, crap. (no - not all, perhaps not even a lot, but still too many). If a student is failing - then the student is failing - end of story. All you can do is try to help them to understand what and where. Just passing them cos it's nice isn't good enough. (such as, being graded relative to the class, rather than to an absolute level).

                      and B) - 'sieling'... after asking how to spell it???
                      When I said "From my research", what I actually meant to say was "Made shit up" - from a thottbot thread

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                      • #12
                        There are a lot of factors:

                        Parents who freak out and threaten to sue if their kids are held back, especially if the child has already been held back, but won't let the child be put in special education.

                        Teachers who don't care.

                        Administrators who don't care.

                        Parents who don't care.

                        Students who don't care.

                        Emphasis on testing (No Child Left Behind), instead of learning.

                        In California, school money is supposed to be evenly distributed student by student, yet school districts in poor neighborhoods never have the same resources as schools in rich neighborhoods. Part of this is because it's easier for corrupt administrators to steal from poor districts.

                        Our cultural focus on now and instant gratification, instead of the future.

                        A refusal to hold students, parents, teachers and administrators accountable.

                        The tree is rotten from the smallest root to the highest branch.

                        We should be weeping.
                        Labor boards have info on local laws for free
                        HR believes the first person in the door
                        Learn how to go over whackamole bosses' heads safely
                        Document everything
                        CS proves Dunning-Kruger effect

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Quoth LibraryLady View Post
                          Where did we go so terribly wrong?
                          Several places,

                          1) by not Anglicizing the spelling of foreign words.
                          2) by not allowing spelling to keep up with pronunciation changes.
                          3) by not firmly settling on whether to spell ponetcially of phonemically.

                          Besides, we now have spell checkers.
                          Proud to be a Walmart virgin.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            I used to spell perfectly. I was the runner up in my middle school spelling bee. (I lost to my sister ) Then I studied Latin and Spanish, where the rules have no or very few exceptions. Now my spelling is botched all to hell. I usually get the constanents correct, but I can never remember the vowels. I guess because before high school I looked at a word and remembered it as one unit. Once I got into the habit of picking words apart to find their letters, though...
                            "If everyone is thinking alike, someone isn't thinking." - George Patton

                            "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." - Albert Einstein

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Quoth Slytovhand View Post
                              Ummm.... look at your president. That should be a clue....
                              Yeah, but we didn't actually elect him....

                              Anyway, I love language. I find it fascinating.

                              I have found that the best way to learn how words are put together is to read. A lot. Especially useful are books that are considered classic literature, as they will give you a good basis. And every time you find a word you don't recognize, you look it up.

                              I've studied German formally, and Japanese informally. I understand the spelling and pronunciation rules for both, and in neither case did it cause me to have difficulties with English words. In some cases, it made it easier. Particularly English words with origins in German.

                              Although I do sometimes have trouble when I pronounce a street name that is from Spanish with a Japanese pronunciation. Azusa should have stress on the second syllable. In Japanese, there is no stress; all syllables have equal weight. At least that's the way the teacher at my ex's Japanese class explained it.

                              As for the whole homophone issue, that was actually covered quite extensively in the second year of high school for me. That was 10th grade, I was 14, and I spent pretty much the entire semester reading my books as opposed to paying attention in class. The teacher knew I knew the work, so didn't really care what I was up to as long as I turned in the homework and did well on the tests. I adored some of my English teachers.

                              ^-.-^
                              Faith is about what you do. It's about aspiring to be better and nobler and kinder than you are. It's about making sacrifices for the good of others. - Dresden

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