Tales from a century-old exercise book

[Prometheus]

I just finished reading a fantastic education-related article (it's about the British education system, so its insights may or may not be applicable to the countries of our non-British members ). It's located here, and I strongly recommend that everyone with even the slightest interest in giving future generations the chances they deserve give it a read.


It's about the standards of education evident from an ancient exercise book and various paraphernalia that belonged to a woman named Fannie Bryant (the article cites her name as "Bryan", but one of the comments, from someone whose grandparents knew her in her old age, states that it's actually Bryant). The exercise book covers lessons taught to her in 1898 and 1899, when she was nine and ten years of age respectively, in classrooms containing many pupils, and it is quite humbling to see the comparison between the standards in education back then and the standards in "education" right now.


I was actually shocked to see the article mention that many kids these days struggle with books as simple as Treasure Island, Black Beauty, and so on, as well as more modern (but equally enjoyable) tales like those told by the Harry Potter series. I found the likes of Treasure Island, The Hobbit, and suchlike, to be very simple reading as a nine-or-so-year-old, and I feel that it's downright tragic that kids these days aren't able to enjoy them as I got to.


I found the whole article a bit nostalgic, really (aside from the tragic parts), as I was lucky enough to have some old-fashioned teachers who stuck to the old ways, rather than the "It's ok if you can't spell, as long as we know what you mean" wooliness* that's been undermining the chances of youngsters for at least as long as I've been alive, if not a bit longer.


*("Txtspk" is accepted in examinations, here, for example, and the sorts of mathematical puzzles I was expected to work out at nine or ten years of age are now put amongst the "difficult" ones given to sixteen-year-olds in exams.)


Anyway, yes - give the article a read and see what you make of it. (And I dare you not to find the ostrich smile-worthy.)

 

[WizardStan]

"No child left behind" should mean bringing the struggling children forward, not leaving all children at the back with the wolves.

 

[MarioPandio]

I will definitely check the article in a second but to quote George Carlin "No Child Left Behind?..Well it wasn't long ago that you were promising to 'Give Children a Head Start!', Head Start...Left Behind....Somebodies losing f**kin ground here!"


I shant embed the video, as its rather rude but its bang on the stolen (bailed out) money!


http://www.ebaumswor...o/watch/894932/


I am stunned to hear the UK is accepting txtspeak in exams though. I had heard of that in the US and was aghast enough but seriously, sure language evolves and the youth are pushing that frontier with all the gadgets in our modern lives but this is not a good situation at all.

 

[Blue Protoman]

I've NEVER heard of textspeak being used on exams in the US.

 

[milkshake]

txtspeak is not allowed in examinations at all, marks are awarded/and lost for spelling and grammer, that has never changed in the uk.

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

The teaching system that i grew up with in Ireland was far from stellar. It was 'to use a word in the article' Rote and tedious. We were forced to learn the Irish language but if we asked why and what purpose it served to learn a defunct language we were simply told we have to learn it and that's the end of the story.As a result virtually nobody has a word of Irish.My point is if you force something upon a child or indeed an adult without a good rational reason as to why they should learn it; then they will instinctually reject it. The other thing though is that I believe kids and even us the adults consume so much media nowadays, Videogames, Tv, CD's, Cinema and this leads to a short attention span.TV and videogames offer quick,immediate thrills whilst a book requires a larger investment of one's time and patience.Reading is slow, gradual even peaceful. Even though i love videogames/tv/movies i can see what i believe to be the downsides also. The thing the article misses I believe is that back in 1898 there was no telly,movies or videogames vying for our attentions.Reading must have been one of the primary sources of entertainment.Even music was scarce and perhaps better appreciated for it's rarity.A trip to the theatre or music hall would be a luxury whereas those confined to rural areas may have made their own music and songs. There are plans to overhaul the education system in Ireland and shock horror they finally make perfect sense.Whether these measures will be implemented though is another thing. Can't find that article now though.

 

[MarioPandio]

I would love to agree with both of you and perhaps prior articles I have read are media lies but I shall have to dig them out and show you that teachers have indeed had to have lessons themselves in txtspeak, so as to understand what their pupils are attempting to write.


It then became quasi accepted and to my knowledge it has begun to be accepted further and further afield, that quite simply, language is changing and that todays pupils are actually subconsciously using such written language so often, that they fail to realise they are doing so in exam conditions. This is leading to greater acceptance of it at marking level, so long as it conveys what is required to answer the given question at hand.


I am not at my normal computer that has such links bookmarked but sadly such articles, based in theory on such real life examples, do exist.


In the meantime I wish to set a different question to those in the USA. What to do about dead people voting?

 

[MarioPandio]

I agree also with Wrath of Khan. Things have changed, so massively that it is almost impossible to have the kinds of childhood anyone here may reminisce about. At the same time, despite all the labour saving devices there is actually no personal time anymore. No child is ever left alone to daydream for awhile etc, todays society is on steroids and no imagination is allowed.


I laugh sometimes when my children display what I would consider normal behaviour, in that after ripping into tons of todays toys and being briefly interested, you will sometimes find them having far more fun with the damn cardboard box it came in!


Calvin and his transmogrification devices is where it's actually at. Not all this corporate 'don't need for money you don't have' stuff. There's a world out there and nowadays our kids need 20 years of education just to understand it.... the first 15 minutes of this film sum it up beautifully!


The Gods Must be Crazy


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080801/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66pTPWg_wUw


edit: For (attempted) punctuation fixes and to apologise for double posting.

 

[Blue Protoman]

You guys should see my school, you'd cringe. The only classes I've had this year that weren't populated largely by clowns or slackers were AP Comparative Government and Politics (one of the 6 countries studied was the UK!) and AP Macroeconomics. Most of my Spanish and English classmates are REALLY bad.


Early in the year in English we wrote our essays for college applications (including those who weren't going or had already been accepted somewhere). My teacher himself declared that most of the first drafts were shitty, and after some classwide peer reviewing I came to agree. And he meant shitty, not rough as a first draft should be. The final revisions were due a week or two later; the timestamps showed that few had taken the time to improve upon their essays. Now we're doing research papers on somebody newsworthy (I picked Dennis Ritchie), and most people probably aren't going to do them, or will do a shitty job. We were only allowed to use sources from the Virtual Reference Collection, a sort of online library our school has access to that's full of credible sources. That's fine, but my teacher had to explain four or five times how to get to the damn website! Then afterwards we'll be doing videos on our person, which will likely leave me laughing (at, not with) rather than intrigued.


In Spanish V I hear people asking the teacher to define words that we learned back in Spanish I or II, complaining about homework assignments that an AP Spanish student would KILL to have (aka supereasy ones), or even completely mispronouncing simple words without so much as trying to read in a Spanish accent! For instance, "14" in Spanish is "catorce", yet people read it as "fourteen" amidst butchered Spanish anyway. Thing is, most of my teachers are good, but the students just aren't motivated. In a month or two my grade is going to be talking a lot about where they got accepted, where they're going, and what they're gonna study. Honestly, I'm almost glad to see some people in my school weeded out, or resign to the nearby community college that's only good for summer/winter courses or a worthless two-year Associate's degree.


One guy in my Spanish class wants to go to said community college for two years and "turn things around", then go to Stony Brook afterward. That in itself is fine. Currently he seems to just skirt the passing marks, and constantly proclaims his hatred of math. What does he want to do? Become a pediatrician! Aka, a doctor. Good fucking luck. Stony Brook's got some of the most competitive pre-med students on the East Coast (lucky I'm not going into medicine!), each of whom either do nothing but study day in and day out or switch to another major once they hit Organic Chemistry. I believe less than 10% of pre-meds at Stony Brook actually make it to medical school, but I don't remember where exactly this number comes from.


[/rant]


(Unless you'd like to hear me whine about more of my courses)

 

[MarioPandio]

I'd love to hear of more of your academic adventures. Whine or Wine it's music.


To go back to the txtspeak issue for a moment, I found a few articles and they're not US based either and it dates back further than I recalled aswell...


TEXT SPEAK


2003 UK


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/2815461.stm


NZ 2006


http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2006-11-13-text-speak_x.htm


UK 2006


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-413866/Exam-chiefs-ridiculed-allowing-text-speak-English-answers.html

 

[PokeParadox]

Ugh... I can't stand text speak. Well... to an extent it makes sense in an SMS(Less so now you get plans with unlimited txts.). But When it is used in emails and on instant messenger programs, I want to slap the sender through the internet.


e.g. My brother once sent me hi bro wuu2... so I was scratching my head for 5 minutes and I eventually had to reply, what's the wootwo nonsense? (What are you up to?)

 

[gadgetoid]

If anyone has seen the film Idiocracy (if not, why not?) then that, combined with a bit of "The Time Machine" is approximately where we're heading.


The masses will probably stupify themselves into a de-evolved underclass ( honestly, from observation alone I believe they've done so already ) and the rest of us will trample them into the ground as we build ivory towers... or something like that!


"Text Speak" should be destroyed, and the English language preserved. It's not merely the grasping of a complex subject that counts, but your ability to communicate it to your peers. In fact, I'd wager you'll find good communication skills to be one of the cornerstones of a fruitful career... this stuff should be hammered into kids at an early age. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that robust communication skills surpass, in importance, even an understanding of any other basic subject.


Communication facilitates education! The ability to communicate a problem, for example, helps others provide you with a solution.


Our education standards have pretty much fallen through the floor, but technology has provided far more opportunities to parents to drive their children's education at an early age. I'm going to say it; the iPad is a powerful education tool which is giving my daughter a grasp of spelling and language skills far beyond those she should have at her age.


To any new parents here, I highly recommend things like ABC Pocket Phonics for the basics, and Scribblenaughts for practise. Kids wont even realise they're learning.


Obviously the onus is also on parents to pay attention. But in modern society nobody wants to take responsibility for anything, either.

 

[MarioPandio]

Idiocracy is sublimely accurate. We already have 56 channels of ouch my balls and the rest is frankly arse aswell!


Obama may sound good from a teleprompter but we are dumb and dumber if we haven't spotted thats its Dubyas' 3rd accelerated term and Israel sells Obama doormats for a reason. Not to mention the obvious media manipulation against Ron Paul and the vote fraud that just got Romney through from last place.


You are correct about many of the useful tools available now for subtle education via play though and definitely about taking responsibility.


This is depressing, I need a pick me up...off to Starbucks :lol:

 

[Binky]

1 gud tng bout txtspk iz dat it encourages ppl 2 put thier thoughts in2 writiN.


You like prefer people to like use like 'like' in all their sentences or something I think its like worse init?


Textspeak is probably closer to good English than spoken slang in some ways.


Having said that, good English is better than either.

 

[Prometheus]

If anyone has seen the film Idiocracy (if not, why not?) then that, combined with a bit of "The Time Machine" is approximately where we're heading.

I've not seen Idiocracy (only the trailers - and you wouldn't want to drink water because water comes from toilets), but I certainly see the relevance of The Time Machine!

"Text Speak" should be destroyed, and the English language preserved. It's not merely the grasping of a complex subject that counts, but your ability to communicate it to your peers. In fact, I'd wager you'll find good communication skills to be one of the cornerstones of a fruitful career... this stuff should be hammered into kids at an early age. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that robust communication skills surpass, in importance, even an understanding of any other basic subject.

Yes. That's the thing, txtspk isn't an evolution of language, as folks who are trying to excuse the poor standards often claim - it's a breaking of it, and that's downright dangerous to the communication ability of the people using it from a young age without ever learning better. (You know that theory that posits that if someone cannot communicate effectively, they lose the ability and will naturally become a bit aggressive because people just cannot understand them? I see that happening a lot...)

Communication facilitates education! The ability to communicate a problem, for example, helps others provide you with a solution.

That's what I was taught! I've always valued that, and I'll definitely be sure to pass that on to my future kids.

Our education standards have pretty much fallen through the floor, but technology has provided far more opportunities to parents to drive their children's education at an early age. I'm going to say it; the iPad is a powerful education tool which is giving my daughter a grasp of spelling and language skills far beyond those she should have at her age.

And we should be thankful for that.


My folks cared about driving my education from an early age, too, though the technology wasn't really there back then. I was always way ahead of my peers in school, and thankfully didn't fall victim to some of the horror stories you hear of today, where parents are scorned by teachers because they've bothered to care about teaching their kids to read, write, spell, and so on, before they start school.


If anyone dares to cry "WAAH APPLE!!" at the above statement, go and stand in a corner and put your dunce's hat on. It doesn't matter who makes the technology - the usage here is clearly a bloody good one.

To any new parents here, I highly recommend things like ABC Pocket Phonics for the basics, and Scribblenaughts for practise. Kids wont even realise they're learning.

I've heard of Scribblenauts, but not ABC Pocket Phonics. What're the benefits of the latter?

But in modern society nobody wants to take responsibility for anything, either.

A disgraceful trend that we should all put our hearts and minds into reversing...


I should note, as an aside, that it's come to my attention that some of the passages in Fannie's exercise book, from the article, are actually dictation exercises, not her own prose. However, that's still much better stuff than a fair number of kids today seem to be being exposed to reading/having read to them...

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

Idiocracy is quite Prescient as regards to where society is heading and indeed the space we currently occupy.Its also damn funny.Here's an example clip showing the corruption of starbucks over time.It having morphed into a place more like a brothel.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/nn2ZLPapdRk?feature=oembed

 

[Blue Protoman]

I loved Idiocracy.


Anyway, I think I'll rant a bit more about my other classes, since MarioPandio seems interested;


Forensic Science:


Here we learn about science and biology as applied to crime scene investigation (fingerprints, blood, imprints, etc.). This is only an elective, an optional "easy" science course, though it does count towards the graduation requirement. (I have all of my science credits already, I took this because I could.) Each week we have to write a 125-word paragraph about a recent crime. Some people don't even do this absurdly easy homework assignment, especially since we have a week to do it, more if you count the fact that we do one every week and can predict when to hand it in! We even had a discussion in class one day about how some people are denied graduation for failing this one class, and either never get their diploma or are mailed it unceremoniously after taking a science class that summer at the nearby community college.


AP (Advanced Placement) Comparative Government:


I had this last semester. This (small) class was actually quite pleasant, full of people who successfully balance work and play. The one slacker dropped out a few weeks after the class had begun. I was actually the class clown, but I was the "good" kind; the one that had the right to be funny because he contributed positively to class, did his assigned work (and pretty well), and understood the material (and the means of communicating it, of course). My teacher was also awesome, engaging, and knowledgeable (or would admit when he wasn't, then look it up later). Seriously, this guy lives, breathes, and eats politics. Now I have AP Macroeconomics for the second half of the year.


AP Macroeconomics:


Not quite as exciting, but at least people are learning. Considerably easier than AP Comparative Government, but the (larger) class is maintaining control. I've only been here for a few weeks, so I can't quite say.


Computer Graphics:


This was one of my classes last semester. It's an art class for things like Photoshop. I believe most people did their work, but not many people really did a decent job. One particular group of kids was always so very loud and distracting, and another would always listen to rap music through his headphones obnoxiously loudly. (Granted, it was Run-DMC, so I'm kind of fine with that.) Oh, and one day when we had a substitute teacher, get this; this group of kids was throwing clay around the room. Our class is held in one of the sculpture rooms for some reason (my school gives each student a laptop, remember). The teacher was nice, the class was a little dry, but again this was lowest-common-denominator territory. Thankfully the class was project-focused, so we only had one simple quiz. I don't like how the teacher didn't exactly encourage people to use varieties of tools outside of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, but she didn't discourage them either. She claimed that this was due to Adobe products being widely used in industries, etc.


More ranting later.

 

[MarioPandio]

"Text Speak" should be destroyed, and the English language preserved. It's not merely the grasping of a complex subject that counts, but your ability to communicate it to your peers. In fact, I'd wager you'll find good communication skills to be one of the cornerstones of a fruitful career... this stuff should be hammered into kids at an early age. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that robust communication skills surpass, in importance, even an understanding of any other basic subject.

Yes. That's the thing, txtspk isn't an evolution of language, as folks who are trying to excuse the poor standards often claim - it's a breaking of it, and that's downright dangerous to the communication ability of the people using it from a young age without ever learning better. (You know that theory that posits that if someone cannot communicate effectively, they lose the ability and will naturally become a bit aggressive because people just cannot understand them? I see that happening a lot...)

I would hope I'm not coming across as a defender of txtspeaks seeming march over the English language here, for mentioning its coined phrase of an evolution and I agree with both of your better articulated descriptions of what's happening?


I've an awful grasp of written language myself and a very limited repertoire of repetitive vocabulary, which I always notice more in hindsight. So it has been an occasional honour to be termed 'bardly', 'wordsmith' or more correctly 'inane', by far better communicators than I upon these boards. 'Blame China' was fun, so I thankyou for your bestowed mock award Prometheus and I hope I still have enough Wu-How to be allowed to proof read your Megaman draft when you are closer to publishing?


Like PokeParadox though, I find txtspeak utterly alien and when I respond in what I consider an average example of deteriorating educational standards, I am always flummoxed when the text spoken reply is apparently indicating I talk funny

 

[Prometheus]

I would hope I'm not coming across as a defender of txtspeaks seeming march over the English language here, for mentioning its coined phrase of an evolution and I agree with both of your better articulated descriptions of what's happening?

You're not coming across that way at all, no worries.

'Blame China' was fun, so I thankyou for your bestowed mock award Prometheus and I hope I still have enough Wu-How to be allowed to proof read your Megaman draft when you are closer to publishing?

"Blame China" was genius. :lol:


And, of course! The novel is somewhat on-hold at the moment, that said, as I'm unsure if I want to deal with such an anti-customer outfit as Capcom at this time, but hopefully I'll get back to it should the current issues surrounding that company come to be resolved.

Like PokeParadox though, I find txtspeak utterly alien and when I respond in what I consider an average example of deteriorating educational standards, I am always flummoxed when the text spoken reply is apparently indicating I talk funny

I struggle to translate it, and I will say that that's in spite of having some very finely-honed skills of translating from Gibberish to English...

 

[MarioPandio]

U huz sklz alr8 m8!


Sadly I guess your plushy revenge, isn't yet animatronic enough?


From your Pandoras nubs it should be walkable into Capcoms head office, yell "There is only one Megaman Series and The Advent ZX series was not its profitable!" or such similar but with the correct vernacular, of those in the Megaman know how ville! Before a pressing of the Pandora button, sees little plushy bits raining a thousand boss characters hidden revenges onto the unsuspecting corporate lackies that defilled the series and killed off, the last vestiges of hope remaining in a trivialised world of pain, that now rains gloriously upon their wasted souls!


Hopefully with a built in wecam to your Pandora for more fun.


Though of course, poor Mr Plushy, that we have only seen the fascade of so far ( perhaps wielding, a maybe, 'Sickle of Death to Capcom' as a flag holder (that "didn't really resemble a throat cutting razor your Honour") and only in silhouette) will now be enjoying, his twinkling last seconds of the stuffing knocked out of him, for the very last time, hazily floating to the office floor, adding to the static electric issues and with luck, blocking up the vents of the UPS systems batteries.


It's with hope that I offer a kind of too late, 'to have told you so' correction but....if Megaman belief systems, are anything like the religious ones out here, or anything like the instructional manuals that qualify as such for religion and morals outhere, as much as in game philosophies to die for in there, then sadly theres been some mistranslations.


The 72 virgins are infact White Crystal like Raisins...


The Camel and the Needle thing....another mistranslation.


Megaman revenge against Capcom by any means, even if it's the witholding from publishing, of a no doubt fine novel against their companies apparent purely, financial interests....another possibly tragic, mistake!





By the way I think theres some robot wars types on the board and someone already made a Pandora RC programme to nut their car into their desk leg or similar, so Bob's the word, swallow your sim card and lets take out the Special Needs Donkey!


Oh wait...thats me!


No wait... I've havent got me confused face on, no...oh sorry lads and lasses I don't really know what I'm doing but there is knowledge proper good....somewhere!