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As a teacher I can tell you that the majority of students do not have a clue. This is because parents are failing in their duties. The education establishment has not helped with its turn toward the touchy feely in place of traditional education. Having said that, I get damn tired of fellow teachers whinning about pay and class sizes. Go dig a ditch for a year and you will see how easy you have it. Work a job that requires you to work ALL year rather than 190 days + - and see how lucky you have it. Work a job where having a 10% failure rate would get you fired and you will realize that the 30+% failure rate you produce would be grounds for termination in most other fields. Stop whinning and start working.
Yeah students!! Go right ahead!!
And while you're rebelling, make sure you demand that the Powers That Be investigate teacher concerns such as salary, classroom conditions, class size, discipline, technology, and workload -- to name a few!!
GOOD question. As a teacher I see so much awful grammar, spelling, and punctuation. I think that many kids don't care because in my elementary school it is taught almost everyday. I don't know what the answer is to this because it just seems to me that the students don't see the reason why they need to learn this. Proof is in the pudding when you look at how students write on EduQnA.com.
Is that why kids use "U" for you, "C" for see, "CR8" for crate? I thought that was texting lingo. Oh wait...so teachers haven't taught English well enough so the kids had to come up with their own grammar and spelling...well bless their hearts.
With text messaging, it is only going to get worse. We live in such a fast paced world these days, dissemination of information as quickly as you can has loosed the demands for correct grammar.
There is also a bigger push in the areas of math and sciences which makes grammar less of a priority. Of course, those of us who are staunch grammar advocates are seething daily as we encounter students who fail basic rules. Whatever happened to the Education Rock commercials that aired on Saturday mornings? This was a very subtle way to reinforce basic teaching.
So in short, I don't think the uprising will ever happen. Such a shame....
I highly doubt you will see many students ask for a more demanding academic program. They want the easy way out, and their parents don't help in the matter. I'm a high school counselor, and I can't tell you how many phone calls I get from parents complaining about teachers who are too hard, and their kids have too many challenges. They say they are worried about their child's self-esteem (he/she isn't getting good grades, and I'm afraid he/she will start to feel bad about him/herself). The honest truth is that kids don't feel good about themselves when things are easy. Self-esteem comes from overcoming difficult situations, learning that you can succeed when the going gets tough, as they say. When the parents model for their children that taking the easy way out, thus not fighting for higher standards and challenging situations, is the way to go, then we cannot expect that the children will do any differently. Nobody rises to low expectations.
I think that parents have to play a bigger role in children's education...the people in the State Education Dept making the laws, and/or curriculum need to be exposed to the classroom themselves...this is the problem parents don't want to be accountable for their children's education, laws like the NCLB put pressure into teachers so that they pass students along.all these silly standardized testing and state testing needs to stop... children are being taught for the test, they're not being taught to love reading and writing but often pressured into reading...when this stops this nation will have more Whitmans around!
Before you blame schools and teachers, let's see what fine role models we have in society. When even the president cannot speak English without butchering grammar, you know things are bad! While you are making demands, ask that newscasters use correct grammar. How many more times do I have to hear "for you and I" from people who should know better?
It seems to me that many students do know the rules of grammar, they just need more knowledge about when to use the rules and when it's okay to use chatspeak. It's a matter of being aware that there are different situations that require different actions and kinds of speaking. It's called "code-switching," and it means that you can help students recognize there is a place for using chatspeak (in text messages) and using proper grammar (at school and professionally). A good way to teach it is to have the kids write a resume or professional letter. Then, if they do write C U L8r, you have a teachable moment, where you can talk about how a prospective employer or professional may react to seeing someone write like that, as opposed to their friends in a text message.
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