Remember how things were done before the internet. The Internet, formerly known as ARPANET, was brought online in 1969 under a contract let by the renamed Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) which initially connected four major computers at universities in the southwestern US (UCLA, Stanford Research Institute, UCSB, and the University of Utah). The Internet was the result of some visionary thinking by people in the early 1960s who saw great potential value in allowing computers to share information on research and development in scientific and military fields. J.C.R. Licklider of MIT first proposed a global network of computers in 1962, and moved over to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in late 1962 to head the work to develop it. Once upon a time people used to write to each other on paper with ink. Nowadays some universities are doing away with hand written exams because a whole generation is losing the ability to write. Cambridge University in the UK is seeking to scrap exams written with a pen and paper due to the deterioration of students’ handwriting. A growing reliance on laptops has led to students’ writing becoming increasingly illegible, academics said. The problem has become so bad the university is preparing to switch to examinations on laptops – ending 800 years of handwritten exams.
They not only can't write in cursive, they can barely print, and many can't even spell without spellcheck, or even understand what the word is supposed to be. Many people can't tell time or make change anymore either. The internet has brought a lot of great things; but it has also helped people to lose a lot of the skills that we have depended on for many years in the past.
I think that's an exaggeration @Yvonne Smith. Ive seen school work from all my grandsons and they do know how to print and spell. They have spelling tests just like we did. I can't remember if cursive is taught though so you may be right on that. The younger ones don't write their essays on the computer but by hand. By junior high though, they do use the computer. I just proof read my 13 yr old grandson's essay over the weekend. He's a good writer. Of course schools are different but all my grandsons are in good school systems.
You are right , @Chrissy Cross , and what I wrote is not true of everyone; but it IS becoming more and more common. My grandchildren, like yours, can read, write, tell time, and spell. I am sure that there are a lot of other kids that are well educated also; but probably they had caring parents that helped them, and made sure that they were taught properly. Parents can make a big difference, either for or against education. Here in Alabama, we have a lot of the adults that don't even understand words correctly, so there is no way that the children are about to learn properly. When you read something as simple as craigslist ads, you will see people selling a "pin" for a dog, and what is in the bedroom is called a "bedroom suit", not suite. They can't tell the difference between "sell" and "sale", so they have items that are "for sell". Other words that are mis-pronounced are also spelled the same way that they pronounce them, so they are not even really a word once they are written. Some of the mis-pronunciations are hilarious ! One of my favorites was an ad for someone who had a "winter bagel" for sale. (In case you are not sure what one of those is, this one was a motor home).
Yep - I think a lot of it is down to parenting too as well as encouragement So many parents over here are horrendous and the children follow their lead. Its great when you see a little gem of a child 'rebel' against their parent's attitude !
They give kids iPads in elementary school here. They are allowed to use calculators starting in the third grade. If the computers all go down, they will be helpless.
In which case they all will likely be given a passing grade consistent with the average on their curve.
I was online before it was called that, and while it was still in the hands of the university system. When I teaching for South Texas Community College, which was part of the University of Texas, I had a login. However, it was like booting up a DOS computer with a huge hard drive. When you logged in, you were confronted with a C:// prompt and had to navigate from there by calling up a DIR and making choices from there. Sometimes, I found what I was looking for, and sometimes I didn't. Maine has been giving laptops to 7th graders and up since 1999, although it's up to the school districts how they are used. Some districts require that the students use the computers only while they are on the school grounds, while I think most of them let them take them home. Until 2013, the taxpayers were giving them MacBooks, but Hewlett Packard became the preferred supplier in 2013. At the time that they began the program in 1999, the reports here were that Maine was the first state to do that.
Malapropism is the act of using an incorrect word in place of one that is similar in pronunciation. The word comes from a character named Mrs. Malaprop in the play "The Rivals" by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Malapropism is also referred to as Dogberryism, named after Officer Dogberry in Shakespeare’s "Much Ado About Nothing." Both characters made these speech errors. Here are some examples of malapropisms made by well-known people: "The police are not here to create disorder, they're here to preserve disorder." - Richard Daley, former mayor of Chicago "He was a man of great statue." - Thomas Menino, mayor of Boston "Texas has a lot of electrical votes." (electoral votes) - Yogi Berra "Well, that was a cliff-dweller." (cliff-hanger) - Wes Westrum "Be sure and put some of those neutrons on it." (croutons) - Mike Smith "It's got lots of installation." (insulation) - Mike Smith speaking about a new coat "Create a little dysentery among the ranks." (dissension) - Christopher Moltisanti from "The Sopranos" "This is unparalyzed in the state's history." (unparelled) - Gib Lewis, Texas Speaker of the House These are examples of malapropisms spoken by Archie Bunker in "All in the Family": "A witness shall not bear falsies against thy neighbor." "The hookeries and massageries…the whole world is turning into a regular Sodom and Glocca Morra." "Last will and tentacle…" "Patience is a virgin." (virtue) "A menstrual show." (minstrel) "Buy one of them battery operated transvestite radios." "A woman doctor is only good for women’s problems…like your groinocology." "I ain’t a man of carnival instinctuals like you." "Irene Lorenzo, Queen of the Women’s Lubrication Movement." "In her elastic stockings, next to her very close veins." "In closing, I’d like to say Molotov!" (Mazel Tov) These are examples of malapropisms made by former president George W. Bush: "It will take time to restore chaos and order." "The law I sign today directs new funds... to the task of collecting vital intelligence... on weapons of mass production." "They have miscalculated me as a leader." "I am mindful not only of preserving executive powers for myself, but for predecessors as well." "We need an energy bill that encourages consumption." "We cannot let terrorists and rogue nations hold this nation hostile or hold our allies hostile." .