Steven Loc: So. Milwaukee, WI.

I've learned to speak in all the world's tongues.

Steven Loc: So. Milwaukee, WI.

Except Greek that is.

Steven Loc: So. Milwaukee, WI.

I MESSED THAT JOKE UP

PhotogHobbyist Loc: Bradford, PA

There must have been a lapse in the teaching of how to write proper English from when I was in school to the present. During my working career, I saw so many written memos, letters, and reports from other employees that that had significant misspelling, poor punctuation, and improper words. Those were employees that had received degrees in a wide variety of subjects from a wide variety of colleges. I was amazed at the obvious lack of proper English and spelling in those written items.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Not really, it was dependent on the individual student and their teacher(s).
I had students who were not really competent in either written or spoken language. And towards the end of my career I met teachers who were incompetent also. Most of the English, Literature and History teachers were competent but some of the other fields like science they knew their subject material but not the language.

David in Dallas Loc: Dallas, Texas, USA

I don't think many English teachers really know the subject all that well. And the language itself has undergone a number of reformations since I was in grade school; some of them are actually improvements in understanding how it works (but not all).

JADAV

The company I worked for took on a new Structural Engineer who had come from China to study then stayed on to gain professional experience. I discovered that he spoke "Chinglitch" but I needed to get his information accurately so I made a deal with him. At the end of the month my Manager wanted to speak to me about this new guy. Apparently everyone in our office had complained about him as they couldn't understand him speaking except for me - did I have any complaints? I replied that I didn't and that he was a great addition to the office in that he always replied very promptly to my requirements. The manager said that he was very surprised and wanted to know how I could understand what the new guy was saying to me. "Oh I can't follow a word of what he says," I answered,"I got him to agree that we would communicate by email only - he writes and reads English perfectly!".

JADAV

My young son brought home his annual school report and gave it to his mother and I to read. My wife checked it first and out of the wreckage of below par scores and critical comments from his teachers she picked out the one bright point. "Look! His English teacher says that "He is a competant speller"!. As I looked over her shoulder I could only shake my head and say "How the Heck would she know? She can't spell "competent" correctly!".

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Ah, spelling, my big enemy. Once in 5th Grade my teacher and my Mother got together and told me if I didn't get my D+ in spelling up to a C they would drop my A's in History, Literature and Science to B's. I had a B in math.

For the rest of the year I had an A- in spelling. It severely cut into my reading and roaming with friends time, but I got up to an A- for the rest of that school year.

And that was under the old grading scales where the lowest D- was a 75. Not a 60 like many schools use now. I once had a Gifted class complain I graded too hard. One said "I bet you weren't graded that hard when you were in high school!" I opened up the computer and typed in the old grade scale and had it recalculate their grades and put it on the overhead screen. Then I told them I was perfectly willing to grade them the same way I was graded when I was in high school. They looked at the results of the two grade scales and decided that they liked the new grade scale just fine.

westitzer Loc: Central California coastal area

How 'bout "squeet"? (Let's go eat)

JADAV

If you can find it on the internet the UK had a Channel 4 series "That'll Teach 'Em" (see Youtube) that explored the changes in the methods in education here since the 1950's. There are several instances that are similar to your experience that are not only interesting but also entertaining. Successive Governments and Education Ministers have claimed that standards have not been in decline but this series leads you to believe that they have.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

My paternal Grandparents were both farm kids in Western Kentucky and both born in the 1890's. In the attic of the farm house I found a trunk with their old books from the little country school house where they met back before WWI. The old McGuffey's readers had stuff in them that many college students would now have trouble with. And that school only went to 8th Grade.

I showed some print outs from the same edition to the Dean of Arts and Letters at Cal State Los Angeles when I was in a seminar for working teachers he and his #2 were running. The Dean said many graduate students would have trouble with some of the material and his #2 added "We have a few young professors who would have trouble with some of it."

So, yes, school has been getting dumbed down over the decades. In large part because no one wants to face angry parents/voters/lawyers for making their little angels work too hard or giving too many low or failing grades.

I once had a parent, very active in school affairs, go to the school and get me in a conference to complain that my work was below the level of her son "After all he is in the Gifted Program and your gifted class." The Asst Principal asked what work in particular. And she said "He does vocabulary quizzes for 8th Grade Gifted and grades them on work habits for doing homework. Something that simple is beneath them."
Then it was my turn, "If it is so easy why does your son only have a D- on homework for too much missing work and failed yesterday's vocabulary quiz?" At which point I laid the open grade book with a line of Red zeros in place of homework grades and his quiz paper from the day before which he had failed with a score of 10 out of 20. And the vocabulary quizzes were done as multiple choice.
The conference came to a very fast conclusion. The kid did start doing more homework and doing a bit better on the vocabulary quizzes for a while.