I keep a large websters in the tool locker I have at work. It is with the metal working tools I get to teach others to use. It is a tribute to a very special shop teacher I had in high school. He taught me more about english than the english class teachers did. He is why I know the difference between can and may. A marine helicopter pilot in the guard at the time. A great mentor! Thank you Doug Orahood.
He is why I know the difference between can and may.
Reminds me of my old H.S. history teacher. His very predictable response to anyone asking "can I go to the bathroom?" was always... "I don't know if you can, but you may." I'm pretty sure some of the kids never did figure it out.
I had an 8th grader on the bus this week asking me what the "S" was for on a sign. I explained how it was the owner's name with an apostrophe, then the S, and that it shows ownership. I never, in my wildest dreams though I would ever be teaching anyone about grammar.
Most of my professional life I kept a Webster's dictionary on my book shelf at work. It's seen a lot of use over the years. It probably didn't help my spelling any going into a computer technology where all labels in your code could only be a few letters long.
Note this is ENGLAND, a land supposed to have much smarter people than here.... after decades of dumbing down school policy.
Yes, I AM aware of the difference between stupid and ignorant. You can be either, both or not either. Then there's the Trolls, who seem ignorant, are stupid, and mentally ill. I suppose it's best to treat them nicely so they don't torture animals.... But you can't tell what they do off line anyway, so that may be a bleeding heart idiot liberal notion.
Trigger Warning!
Fred is opinionated, smart, and I agree with some of his notions. Others? not so much.
If you read a bunch of his stuff you will probably get angry. At whom, or why, is up to you.
I learned to read by age 5. ( might have been a bit earlier ) Went to Kindergarten already literate. Taught my sister to read at age 4. She burned through every book available in Kindergarten in less than a month, and got sent to the library to keep her from getting bored.
I can, but don't as often as I used to, burn through a medium ( 400+ page ) novel in one day. If it's work days, and I surf and kvetch here, 3 days is about normal for me. I often joke I skimmed "How To Read Better And Faster". ( I did, actually. Started out reading word by word and finished the last half skimming at about 3 lines per eye flick )
OTOH I had a couple guys sharing rent on a house one time, and one had some dyslexia. Had a hard time reading fiction, just couldn't enjoy it, but was a wiz at car & motorcycle maintenance manuals & graphs.
He was tested at 6th grade level in reading.
He was furious when we insisted he was not handicapped. Did NOT believe he read better than the average clerk in retail.... or most graduates of Teaching College. Haven't seen him in years. I assume I'm paying for his lifestyle. He sure didn't have a job for more than a week when I lived with him.
Not because of his literacy. Because of his sense of entitled victim status.
Seriously. 6th grade level. Great mechanic. He ported the heads on my Suzuki, and did an awesome job. ( took 3 months, but golly it was fast when we were done ) Last I saw him he wouldn't work for a living.
I live in the province of Quebec, this is a Francophone province, with language police to enforce the use of French in the public domain. I speak read and write fluent French and can assure you all that the situation is no better here in that language either.
I'm currently looking for tyres for my car, my teeth are grinding.
All of my life I have routinely spotted stuff like that... I was reading at age 3. When my folks would take me driving around Nashville as a little boy, I would try to read EVERY sign that I could see on each side of the road. I'm sure I drove them crazy with that habit!
My sis graduated from Belmont with a degree in English- went on to become editor of a Christian monthly magazine. I still correct her stuff from time to time.
I learned to read and write (and cursive!) at an early age. Son of a Navy Officer and a physical therapist.
I learned to type equally early.
Then, drafting. Talk about penmanship!
I, too, would devour books at an alarming rate. "The Stand"? 2 days. Pick a Tom Clancy novel at lunch, and I'd be done by bedtime. And honestly...that was where I learned a lot of my grammar - when you read it, and it's done correctly, it sticks. Then, whether you know it or not, if you see it (or write it) INcorrectly...something just looks "off". Prompting a visit to Websters.
Somebody summed it up nicely the other day - we no longer teach intelligence in school. We teach obedience. Not necessarily "do what you're told" obedience, but "society says this is now the norm, so it's OK" obedience. Lack of thought. Lack of drive - everyone gets a trophy. Quotas mean you don't have to be qualified, as long as you meet some other (sex, age, color) requirement that meets the quota in question.
They don't even teach HANDWRITING anymore.
There. They're. Their. Anybody know the difference anymore? Anyone care?
When did it become acceptable to end a sentence with "at"? "Where you at" makes my teeth hurt. "Where are you" is the same number of syllables...and it's CORRECT. How hard is this?
Oh.
It's damned hard, when nobody CARES.
I'll just hang out with my dogs, near my hot water heater, driving a car with a VIN number... Not necessarily "spelling", but definitely a couple of my pet grammar peeves there. But they all go hand in hand - we don't CARE about how to do things correctly. It may start with spelling...but it certainly doesn't end there.
I even got taken to task here on Badweb - someone posted parts for sale in the BB&D section. I posted that they should put that post in the classifieds, since that's what they're there for. Another member (not the OP selling stuff, just another member - who isn't new to the forum) posted "aw, leave it be, it doesn't matter".
Right.
No sense doing things the way they're meant to be done. Just do whatever it is, whenever you want, however you want, it doesn't matter. And that, unfortunately, is the attitude spawned by the lack of spelling - which, in all reality, starts with attention to detail.
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