Dumbing down of America

[BirdMom]

My favorite misspelling was in Boise, Idaho, a few years back. It was on a bus for a large daycare. In large letters on the side, it proudly proclaimed it was a "learnining" center! In ten years, they never changed it. I don't think they ever even noticed or knew it was wrong. No, I didn't bother to tell them. Just enjoyed the spectacle.

My husband has a genetic misspelling disorder. Though educated in various places all over the country, he, his siblings and his father all misspell exactly the same words exactly the same way! Fortunately, my children have inherited my spelling and grammar skills.

 

[Sjisty]

Wow, I could actually read all of the posts on this thread without having to decipher them! I agree, the "Dumbing of America" is pretty scary. I am a medical transcriptionist, so words are my job. From what I have seen of these kids coming out of school, I have no worries of being replaced any time soon. It isn't just English, either. How many of our children can add, subtract, multiply, or divide without a calculator?

 

[Stumpy]

Quote:
That reminds me of a story -- I worked as a court reporter for ten years and that sort of work involves lots of proofreading, needless to say. I remember a court reporter's transcript was the main point in a prisoner's appeal, all because of where she placed a comma. Thankfully, that never happened to me -- not that I didn't make mistakes. I'd just hate to think that some rapist or murdered was going to get out because of my mistake.

Babylady4, that made me chuckle -- I used to correct a friend's letters with a red pen

My favorite newspaper misspelling was in our local paper. It was a caption under a photo of a child. "(Child's name) wins selping bee."

 

[Opa]

Pronunciation and punctuation are pet peeves. I sure wish people would learn to talk more gooder.

 

[chrissum]

Check out this test from 1800's KS school:
http://thinklab.typepad.com/think_lab/2006/03/8th_grade_exami.html

 

[pbjmaker]

Quote:
Well maybe they need to be looking for "partential" mates instead????

I too am flabbergasted by the stupidity around me sometimes. I think the general population has just become lazy.

My son has chosen the hard way in life and failed some classes last year. (After YEARS of trying to get him to see how important it was to actually do work and turn it in we decided he needed to just fail)

Anyhow, he paid for and went to summer school so that he could graduate on time. It was a big eye- opener for him. He came out the first day and said "Holy Cow mom! What a bunch of LOSERS!" I just looked at him and said - "Yep, and you are one of them. That is the road you chose when YOU decided you wanted to be uneducated."

He actually did a lot better this year and graduated two weeks ago. I also got a call from his summer school teacher thanking me for having a child that is respectful to teachers. Apparently he was the only student that was there to learn

 

[Ferrret]

First I would like to let you folks see this : http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37496186/ns/us_news-life/?GT1=43001

And I would like to add that in some cases I can accept spelling/grammar errors. Those cases are when someone has a disability such as Dyslexia or has been put down all their lives and called stupid from day one so they never had the ambition to learn. My dad has Dyslexia and has always had difficulty with words, but he is by no means stupid. I can usually figure out what he means when he spells something and he will ask how to spell a word if he doesn't know it.

I would like to add 'Your/You're', 'wear/where', 'bye/buy/by', 'accept/except', 'then/than', 'advice/advise' and 'here/hear' to the 'their/they're/there', 'to/too/two', and 'know/no/now' common annoying mistakes.
Other annoyances are replacing words with numbers (ex: b4) using nothing but text speak when typing (ex: LOL!, OMG I kno!, ilu 2) and speaking text language out loud. Every time I hear someone say 'Oh Emm Gee' I want to hit them, hard.

It is an educational and acceptance issue. People are undereducated, and other people accept it and move on without bothering to correct it. As in the link above, people would rather make it easier to misspell things than to bother with correct spellings. We're destined to return to the days when every word has six different acceptable spellings.

 

[TipsyDog]

Quote:

I'm pretty sure our college grads can't pass that one!

edited for spelling

 

[pdsavage]

I do not articulate very well,I find it sad that people judge others on thier ability to write.
My grammer and spelling are realy realy bad,but im not stupid by any means.Im sure there are things I do much better then others but I don't go around and call people stupid and lazy because I can do it better.
I think there is more important things to worrie about then how well some person can punctuate.

 

[schellie69]

As a person with a learning disability, and a mother of a daughter who is mentally challenged. I understand that sometimes spelling and grammar are not as important as the message that is being wrote. I think that some people are to lazy to do what they should, but some people really can't help it. I think before we judge someone's spelling or grammar maybe we should put ourselves in that person's shoes. I had written a post regarding my chickens having worms, at the time I was very upset and worried I did not worry about where to put a comma or a period instead of helping with this problem the person was very negative about my writing. The funny thing was the person forgot to capitalize the first word of the sentence and forgot to capitalize the word "I". So before you tell someone that what they wrote was wrong check yourself also. I try and catch all my spelling mistakes. Thank goodness for spell check. I am really good at reading what the person means instead of what is typed. Being a mother of a special needs child helps a lot. Just wish people cared enough to take the time to ask some questions before calling someone stupid or dumb for making some mistakes.