Sad State of our Education System

[RDK]

I don't usually talk about it here, but my wife is an attorney specializing in adoption and estate planning matters, mostly dealing with same-sex couples. She has a website that accepts e-mails to her, mostly for business and/or personal queries, but as you might expect she gets more than her share of "hate mail" from those who - for one reason or another - don't agree with what she does. Many are ugly and mean-spirited, some very polite even in disagreement - one woman actually sounds sweet and good-intentioned as she honestly fears for my wife's soul. Some we get a good laugh out of.

She forwarded me this one earlier today. It upset her not so much for its message of hate (which is rather mild compared to some of them), but for how poorly it was drafted - and for the fact that it was sent by a university student...

"How is it right to bring a child into the world noing that it will be taken away from the mother and given to a homosexual couple. Denying this child there essencial right to a loving mother is down right sickening.

Letting these women breed like cattle while selling their calfs will never

be considered a moral endeveor in my opionion."

Edited March 25, 2004 by RDK

[vibes]

I see emails worse than this at the company I work for - a Fortune 100 company where almost everyone is a college grad. Good writing just isn't that important to most people these days. You'd think they'd at least use the spellcheck before hitting the "send" button, though.

[BruceH]

I dont no what there coming too.

[Craig23]

When I was going to college I graded papers for one of my instructors. The writing was horrible.

Now I am a third grade teacher. Honestly, the writing from my third graders is not much worse than many of the papers I graded at the university.

It is unfortunate.

[Jim Alfredson]

L@@ks god too me.

[RDK]

L@@ks god too me.

I'd expect that from a drummer maybe, but from an organist?

[wesbed]

I had to tell my 'boss' at my job... just press the F7 key before you email your shit out to the group. At least your words won't be misspelled.

How difficult can it be to press the F7 key and do a quick spelling and grammar check?

[BERIGAN]

I had to tell my 'boss' at my job... just press the F7 key before you email your shit out to the group. At least your words won't be misspelled.

How difficult can it be to press the F7 key and do a quick spelling and grammar check?

Yeah, there is nothing like having a boss, who makes 10's of thousands more than you, who doesn't know how to run spellcheck, or not to type emails with all letters in lower case. i hate when people do that!

[BERIGAN]

Hey, cheer up RDK, Scotland has the same problem!

Why Scotland is dumbing down

Jim Gilchrist

When it was reported last year that a 13-year-old at a Scottish secondary school wrote her homework essay in text message abbreviations, the nation recoiled in horror. Surely our literacy levels hadn’t reached such abhorrent levels? Surely in Scotland, the country of the Enlightenment, we had not regressed this far? But despite the hand-wringing, statistics are stacking up that tell us this is, indeed, the case. An estimated 23 per cent of adults in Scotland have low levels of literacy and numeracy skills. Last year 49 per cent of S2 pupils failed the national writing test, 39 per cent failed reading. More schoolchildren than ever before are going on to tertiary education, but no longer to study the likes of literature, philosophy and the arts. Now, driven by a demanding job market, many opt for vocational courses such as IT studies and town planning. Most recently, moves have been made to eradicate Latin, the foundation of most modern languages and to many the benchmark of a good education, from the school curriculum.

So is it a case of nunc et nunquam - now or never - for Latin and Greek in Scotland? Fears that the Scottish Executive is phasing out Latin in state schools by withdrawing funding from those who teach the teachers have certainly had classics scholars forming cohorts of indignant protest.

It’s easy to see classics in retreat, but this seems bizarre when universities have possibly more studying classical subjects than ever

The row has erupted over the University of Strathclyde’s decision to suspend its teacher training course in Latin and Greek, following the retirement this summer of its senior lecturer in classics. Strathclyde’s is the only facility in Scotland for teacher training in Latin and, while the university insists that the post is simply being left "fallow" for a year, academics writing to The Scotsman and other papers are clearly concerned that it could mean the thin edge of the wedge in ousting the so-called "dead" languages from Scottish classrooms, on the grounds that there are not enough pupils learning them to justify the expense of training teachers. Yet, argue the protestors, interest in general classical studies, if not purely in Latin and Greek, is on the increase.

Once a foundation of the traditionally broad Scottish education, which gave rise to the 18th-century Scottish Enlightenment and what has become known as the "democratic intellect", Latin in schools, like the Roman empire, has declined mightily, being widely regarded as irrelevant, elitist and defunct. Others regard its endangered classroom status as simply another example of the trend towards sidestepping challenging subjects.

Dr Ronald Knox, senior teacher of Latin and Greek at Glasgow University, and one of a group of academics who wrote to The Scotsman last week calling on the Scottish Executive to ensure continued provision of classics teachers, sees the present threat as part of what he calls a broader "impoverishment of opportunity". "In one sense it’s easy to see classics as being in retreat since about 1900, but this seems bizarre at a time when universities have possibly more people studying classical subjects, though not necessarily Latin and Greek, than ever before. So it is just not true that there is no demand and, as classicists, we are now very concerned, because there ought to be a teacher training facility for classics somewhere in Scotland, in Strathclyde if it is willing to continue, or somewhere else."

Latin and Greek no longer enjoy the status they once had in a society in which they were essential to the training of teachers, doctors, scientists and the clergy. Yet these languages have far from outlived their usefulness. "European civilisation as a whole has roots and you only understand the branches with deference to these roots," says Knox.

"Whatever modern language you’re dealing with, at least beyond a very small compass, you run up against classical notions. And when we teach classical civilisation courses, we give students stuff on classical democracy, as well as on tragedy and comedy and so many literary genres which were invented in Greece and Rome."

Latin and Greek are not the only ones to suffer. Grammar, once regarded as an essential part of the school curriculum, is no longer taught in most schools. Basic levels of literacy are of increasing concern in Scottish schools. Four in ten candidates failed last year’s Higher English and 25 per cent scored less than 30 per cent.

Tony Williams, senior lecturer in classics at Strathclyde University who retires this summer and is at the centre of the row, does not regard "dumbing down" as an inappropriate phrase for the current situation. "I think subjects such as classical languages, known to be intrinsically challenging, have been under pressure for some time because bums on seats has been the criteria."

Yet as he and others point out, general interest in classical studies seems to be growing. Dr Tom Harrison, director of teaching in St Andrews University’s school of classics, reports an increase over the past few years, with between 130-140 students in his current first year.

"That’s also had an effect in increasing staff numbers and our department has gone up by at least two people over the last couple of years. We wouldn’t get that if we weren’t making money by teaching more students."

This month St Andrews ran a conference for Higher students, which attracted more than 100 pupils from local schools alone. Latin being taught in only 34 out of 577 state secondaries in Scotland may not sound good, says Harrison, "but in schools where it is taught, it’s thriving".

Much ado about an archaic linguistic Cinderella, then? Duncan Hamilton, the 30-year-old former SNP MSP for the Highlands and Islands who raised the issue in his column in The Scotsman last week, thinks not. Describing himself as "a young man arguing for an old subject", he speculates: "Today Latin ... tomorrow medieval history? Are we to say that anything which is not immediately capable of sponsorship by a private company no longer of any worth?"

But the demand is most certainly there, according to Barbara Bell, head of classics at Clifton High School in Bristol and author of the Minimus Mouse books, whose unexpected success worldwide has, it has been said, done for Latin teaching what Harry Potter did for children’s reading. Her books, aimed at the seven-to-ten age group but used, she claims, by "two to 87-year-olds", can be taught by non-specialists, "but there is no doubt that if we’re going to have a generation of children who are keen on Latin and want to take it further, we must have a certain supply throughout the country of trained specialists."

Bell believes there is huge interest among children - "Whoever says there isn’t is burying their heads in the sand. They may have their own agenda."

She receives letters from young readers all over the world saying that "Latin is cool", while burgeoning adult interest is filling Open University courses every year. "Then, I suppose, there’s a generation in the middle who either had a bad experience of Latin or didn’t do any and they’re full of prejudice, and think it’s only for bright kids and it’s irrelevant, and they couldn’t be more wrong. "

But classics scholars tempted to lament "O tempora! O mores!" can take some comfort from the potential Braveheart effect of the wave of Hollywood "sword and sandals" epics about to hit cinema screens, prompted by the success of Gladiator and liable to include three different films based on Alexander the Great alone. "Films do have an effect on public interest," agrees Knox. "Even the bad history can be useful in stimulating interest."

And an impassioned plea for the classics comes from Valerio Massimo Manfredi, Italian archaeologist and author of a trilogy of novels on Alexander the Great as well as The Last Legion, all of which have inspired and informed films currently in production.

"Let’s imagine that in 500 years’ time, or a thousand, English has become a dead language, replaced, perhaps, by Chinese. And let’s imagine that it is learned only in schools and universities, much as ancient Greek and Latin are now. At that point someone might claim that the study of English had become completely useless because it is a dead language and should be abolished in favour of other subjects, more functional and suitable to the times.

"In theory, this wouldn’t mean much; in practice it would be a disaster. No-one would be able to read Chaucer,Shakespeare, Milton, Blake, Dickens, Joyce, etc, any longer.

"This is why it would be a serious mistake to close the last institutions which cultivate the study of these so-called ‘dead’ languages."

We neglect Latin and Greek at our peril, warns Manfredi, who goes so far as to point to Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 - about a future society that bans books. Greek and Latin, he argues, like music, poetry and art, are "vaccines against homogenisation, globalisation … the subjugation of minds."

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/s2.cfm?id=333212004