Yes, but he has done a good job of restraining himself. I've noticed a number of posts recently using "text speech" (u kno wat Im talkin bout) - I would assume that is about ready to send him over the wall.
Didn't I see a post earlier where he had admitted to being a retired teacher?
Yes, I feel I've restrained myself quite a bit, and yes, I'm a retired teacher, but not English(Math). Whether I was a teacher or not, it's depressing to see so many people who have such a poor grasp of the language, and don't seem to care. I'm not talking about typos, or even the texting short cuts(though it can be annoying). And I don't put it all on the public. In the last five to ten years of teaching, I saw the changes that were going on, where there was no emphasis on learning the basics of the language(spelling, grammar, syntax). That problem isn't just in the teaching of English. With the advent of technology in the classroom(which I wholeheartedly endorse), students are not learning the basic concepts of math. It took a lot to contain myself when a student told me not to explain something, but to just show him what keys to push on his calculator. If it were up to me, calculators would be banned in elementary school, at least until the basics were learned. After retiring, I volunteered in a high school's math lab after hours, and it was stunning to see students in
Algebra! classes who literally needed a calculator to see if 12 was divisible by 3. If they didn't know that, how the heck were they going to understand how to factor algebraic expressions? Too many didn't even know how to multiply(and of course, divide) by 10, 100, etc., without a calculator. It's depressing as **** to see the U.S scoring so low compared to rest of the world.
Sorry about the rant, but those who are in my age group, or who work in human resources of companies, can understand what I'm talking about. To be honest, there have been some posts here that I had to stop reading, since they didn't seem to make sense. There are others where I just have to shake my head. And just to clarify, I'm not jumping on those whose first language isn't English - they write better English than I would write in their first language. There may be a couple of people who read this who I've sent private messages to, when it's obvious they don't know something common, such as the abbreviation, "etc.," which is short for "etcetera." Therefore, the abbreviation ISN'T "ect." I don't want to come across as a grammar Nazi, or embarrass anyone, but sometimes certain things just hit me at a bad time.
Thanks for listening. And if there are any current teachers here, I hope you understand what I'm saying. And parents: I don't know about what you're doing with your kids, but my parents would actually correct our English if we made mistakes at home; it wasn't to embarrass us, but to help us, and I'm glad they did. My parents didn't have a great educational background(heck, my father had to drop out of school when he was 13 years old, and my mother just did graduate from high school), but they had four children who all got good educations, and college degrees.
Those who have been on this forum since the Spring, know I don't text, Tweet, go to Facebook, or any other social media, so I am not used to having to deal with all of this. Again, sorry for the rant. Simpson and SnowItch, you just gave me the opening I needed to get this off my chest. So, the rest of you, please blame them.
