What happened to teaching children proper English and grammar?

Question

Honestly. I don't understand this. It seems like we are too busy teaching our children the finer sides of cooking and organized sports than we are teaching them the simple basics of life. I almost had a heart attack today when I saw a question from a twenty-something that honestly said "be trade" instead of "betrayed." How does this happen? Where are we going wrong? Am I the only person in the world to find this utterly ridiculous?

Answer 1

I am a foreign language teacher and I couldn't agree more. I constantly have to tell my students to speak proper English so they can understand what I am teaching them. It got so bad that one day I posted a sign outside my classroom . Welcome to Ms. Z's class kindly leave your " slang" at the door. The students at first mocked my corrections however now they correct each other when they address each other in slang terms.

Answer 2

Don't be hard on that person. Maybe he/she was not pushed and congratulated to do well in spelling. Maybe he/she was a slow learner and knew it was misspelled but didn't have time to use a dictionary.
With school districts thru the U.S. switching every few years from the method of "Sight reading"; which I don't feel works, back to "phonics reading" which makes more sense, often kids get the basics but they run out of time to "perfect"' their usage. I don't know about every place but Calif. has an exit exam for high-school which is a "basic' skills test for everyone who wants a diploma. It's about the equivalent of doing well but not excellent as a student up to the end of 9th grade approximately so I was told. If they can create a readable paragraph, answer questions on a piece of reading and get meaning and content questions answered on top of a math section then I think that's pretty good. Sometimes---not all the time, when kids are 11- 20something or so they get lazy and use that abbreviated stuff many use for text messaging but it gets used everywhere. My sister used sight reading in 3-5th and she still spells it the way it sounds quite often, which is misspelled by my English degree standards.
I can't change everyone's habits but I'm trying to instill proper reading/literacy skills in the young people around me...at home and at work.

Answer 3

This is what happens when Teachers( and other students) start becoming targets (of guns in the hands of other students)....when parents let children watch dumb reality tv shows like Amer. Idol, but dont teach them current events, science, math, or even politcal studies.....when a village stops raising a child...when people claim to be Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Buddist, etc. and don't pratice, share or calmly discuss their so-call faith...when parents let kids play adult or mature video games (also movies, music, speech)...when Govt is in the home and church/temple/mosque but not office...when parents don't go to PTA, PTO, and the other parent/teacher meetings .....the list goes on how many families eat together, play together, work together, how many marriages last until the child is in high school? oh well...cooking and sports at least have discipline

Answer 4

Unfortunately, our society has become so busy, we often overlook the importance of good grammar and spelling skills. We figure, if it's good enough for us to understand what we wrote, then it should be good enough for everyone else. As someone else on here posted, society views correction as damaging to children's egos and self-esteem. Too bad. I make my students practice grammar at least one day out of the school week. I discuss with them that there is a time and place for all forms of writing, but as long as they are in my class, they must use formal grammar and writing. The only thing we can do is to continue to make them practice formal writing and grammar and stress the importance and need for such.

Answer 5

Like you I find this ridiculous. English and grammar were the hardest subjects for me while in school. I wish my teachers had been more helpful. I also agree with Mark Twain who said: bad grammar coming from a woman sounded to him like profanity.

Answer 6

It's possible to invest plenty of time and income trying to find ways to show your young ones how to see and boost their reading skills. Is hard to show a small kid how to see, and actually enticing them to see is difficult in itself. But it does not need to be this way as you got the aid of this system https://tr.im/110pC , Children Learning Reading program.
With Children Learning Reading you can teach your youngster how to separate your lives seems and break phrases into phonemes, an important thing when your child is merely learning how to spell.
The reading program from Children Learning Reading program makes it simple for children to see rapidly and effectively, from easy words to sentences until they understand to read stories.

Answer 7

Yeah, I'm always trying to correct people. Then they get mad at me. For crying out loud, you wouldn't have to get mad at me if you just learned to spell and use correct grammar! They do teach us correct English, but our generation seems to be too lazy. They learn new things, but they don't use them. I'm a 7th grader, and I type perfectly fine! It's so easy! I don't know, I'm the only person that I know that type correctly. God, it gets so annoying! People are always telling me,"Stop typing so perfect!" but you know what? I can't. This is how I am.

LOL

Answer 8

It seems that the predominant opinion in our public education system today is that correcting a child is telling him/her that he/she is wrong. This can damage self esteem. I feel that correction is necessary. You learn by mistakes, and having them pointed out.
Yes, the schools are headed somewhere, and the admistrators are riding handbaskets.

Answer 9

Of course. It's so prevalent that it shouldn't shock you. It's not sports that causes this. It's lack of teaching of the three A's. More feel good stuff now.

Answer 10

From experience, I can tell you that it is taught (at least in my school it is) in the fourth grade. However, the problem seems to be that if it is not reinforced at home by the parents, the students tend to disregard its importance.