[Leica] RE: While it is happening (B. D. Colen)writing goingdwnhll

[dpost at triad.rr.com (Dan Post)]

B.D.
rite-on! U da man!
It was obvious to me 34 years ago. I returned to college after a stint in
the service, and was told I had to take a course called English 105- that it
was required of all incoming students. It seems that not enough students
were taught how to use the libraries in their respective high schools, so
the college developed a mandatory course to teach the LC and Dewey decimal
systems to incoming students so they could use the library facilities! I
told them that I worked in a library my three years of high school, and was
not about to waste my time, or money for something that ridiculous.
I also remember later in life, painfully reading the writing of my kids, and
now my grandkids- from whom I find numerous errors, even though their grades
in English are high. I was surprised when my grand-daughter who is now a
rising senior informed me that she didn't know what 'diagramming a sentence'
meant. I try to help any way I can, but it is as difficult to change the
course of their schooling after so many years, as it would be to change the
course of a river that had cut its path into the rock. I can say that my
grandson will more often pull out the Britannica Dictionary more often that
trust the spell-check!
I have had younger people comment on my handwriting, and they often ask if I
am a calligrapher; no, I tell them, I was taught how to write (remember the
old Palmer method?) and that we actually had handwriting instruction. I
managed to get a BS and a BA, never typing a paper since I wrote legibly.

I can say that among the newsgroups, this one has the singular distinction
of having the most literate and cogent member of any that I visit- Hell,
even the members for whom English is not their native language are
invariably more cogent, lucid, and understandable than a lot of the native
English speakers I run into daily.
Even if you discount the numerous authors and journalists on the list, the
quality of writing and communication in general here is astounding, and I
agree with BD, that even without a scientific study or a degree in the
scientific method, it seems obvious that the quality of education, as a
whole, and the children who are the product of that education are slipping
into a morass of mediocrity.

So, keep the faith, BD- You make sense more often than not!

Dan
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>
To: "'Leica Users Group'" <lug@leica-users.org>
Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2004 10:45 AM
Subject: RE: [Leica] RE: While it is happening (B. D. Colen)writing
goingdwnhll


> Good Lord, Simon - do we now require scientific prove for statements
> made on the LUG? I hope no one's told Brian, because if he becomes aware
> of this new standard he's going to have to shut this bullshit factory
> down so quickly we won't even be able to see it happening. ;-)
>
> But all kidding aside - First, let me say that I am speaking about
> writing in America. And second, I believe that my statement reflects the
> near universal opinion of those who observe such things. (And no, I am
> not footnoting this statement.)
>
> B. D.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org
> [mailto:lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
> animal
> Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2004 10:11 AM
> To: Leica Users Group
> Subject: Re: [Leica] RE: While it is happening (B. D. Colen)writing
> goingdwnhll
>
>
> >
> > Now, as to the proliferation of writing tools improving writing...I
> > think just the opposite may be true. While Email is probably causing
> > more people to communicate in writing, the quality of writing today
> > has markedly deteriorated over that of a few decades ago, and appears
> > to be going nowhere but downhill.
> >
> How can you prove such a statement?
> simon
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