Re: OT-ish: txt - Could it replace Standard Written English?

Mike Ellis scripsit:

>   The sad thing is that the attitude I quoted above is actually catching
> on. The result is that the kids, by not being forced to learn the right way
> to spell, have more difficulty learning to *read* the language. That's why
> they don't bother reading books for enjoyment anymore. We set them up for
> illiteracy from the start.
Evidence?  Lots of highly cultured people have had trouble learning the
maggelitous spelling of English.  As for reading for enjoyment, that's
a matter of environment.  Kids read iff their parents do.

> If correct use of the
> language and spelling are not criteria for grading an English assignment,
> what criteria are there at all? Remember we're talking about English class,
> not Creative Writing.
Umm, how about orderliness, forceful argument, coherence, appropriate
use (and acknowledgement) of sources?  Microsoft Word can't do anything
about deficiencies in those, and they are a *lot* more important than
social shibboleths about "between you and I".  What you are talking about is
the analogue of grading math homework on how well the students make their
2's (I'm not talking about being downright illegible here).

>   The problem is not correction alone, it's correction between people who
> don't actually know what a subject or an object *is*. These things are not
> taught anymore.
English teachers used to have a theory of English grammar that
they taught.  When scientific linguistics arose as a discipline, it
pointed out that the existing grammar theory was N.F.G. and seriously
misrepresented what English was all about.  English teachers stopped
teaching it, and have been waiting for a replacement for decades now.
Linguists, for reasons of their own, have not been forthcoming.

--
John Cowan                                   jcowan@reutershealth.com
        "You need a change: try Canada"  "You need a change: try China"
                --fortune cookies opened by a couple that I know

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