Matthew Jones <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> > True. Shouldn't we also need to include "should'nt" (etc.)
> > here as well? . These are trivially simple rules to teach/learn
> > - so why they aren't taught (or possibly aren't learnt) says something
> > about the education system and the attitude of the pupils therein.
>
> I don't know which education system you went through, but I was taught all
> this stuff at primary school. I think it's just because the pupils couln't
> be beggared to learn it properly (as you suggest), preferring to subscribe
> to the "well, you know what I mean" school of thought.
<soapboax>
Wrong. There was a concerted effort by the loony left to destroy
decent education in favour of whatever trendy piffle that was the
order of the day.
I had to unlearn the reading I knew before I went to school in favour
of some stupid phonetic system (anyone remember ITA?) in 1970, finally
culminating in a personal battle with Shirley Williams in 1975 to get
me into one of the last remaining decent schools in Hemel. Eventually
I was packed off to a prep school instead of a hellhole comprehensive
and actually being stretched (I had to catch up two years _in_ two
years).
Grrr.
I'm as liberal as anyone here as far as creativity, expression,
society and the rest go, but there are certain fundamentals that you
need before you can go out and break the rules. Like having the
musical basics before you go out and become a punk or a heavy metal
god.
Number one daughter is getting educated privately because it suits her
and number one son isn't, because that suits him. But they will both
be fundamentally literate and numerate.
Isn't it esr who says that good Unix folks are surprisingly literate,
well read, artisitcally inclined folks?
</soapbox>
Sorry, I'll stop now. It's a nerve.
--
Dave Hodgkinson, http://www.hodgkinson.org
Editor-in-chief, The Highway Star http://www.deep-purple.com
Interim CTO, web server farms, technical strategy
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