> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >> The reason I believe the literacy level has dropped dramatically is my >> experience as an office temp for many years and seeing the bad grammar, >> misspelled words, limited vocabulary and lack of coherence in the >> thought >> processes of people my own age (54) and younger. The younger they get, >> the >> worse it seems to be. (Occaisionaly there are notable exceptions, but >> they >> are exceptions). At any rate, if you don't think there has been a >> decline >> in the literacy of Americans over the years, you can check the links >> below >> which report how low we are in the standings worldwide, and for a real >> shock, read some of the letters written on the Civil War battlefield by >> the "uneducated" blacksmiths, clerks, farmers, etc. who were wearing the >> blue and gray. They may only have had a rudimentary education (the 3 >> R's), >> but their prose is more coherent and literate than what I see and hear >> on >> the street these days. >> > > Of course the letters you read are those which were written. Consider > the many hundreds of thousands of soldiers who couldn't write and so > therefore there are no extant Civil War letters from them. Until the > percentage of extant Civil War correspondence and the number of > correspondents is compared against the total fighting force, the mere > existence of such letters proves nothing more than that there were some > literate and eloquent people among the soldiers. > > Think of how many other poorly written letters with bad grammar were > probably burned to start the next morning's fire. > > All this griping about drops in literacy rates and other aspects of > civilized society is nothing new and one can go back to letters written > by Aristotle which decry the very same "end of civilization as we know > it" dumbing down of the younger generation and loss of politeness and > respect for elders, etc.
OR we can just pretend isn't happening, or accept it as the status quo and do nothing to help prevent it from slipping more. I realize it's part of the cycle of human behavior, but without paying some mind to it and trying to revitalize it periodically (if not diligently) it will fix itself? Or isn't it important enough to bother with at all? Muddling through...hmm, there's an inspirational approach to life on the planet. > > But somehow we've managed to muddle through a few thousand years since > those complaining letters, and I'm sure we'll muddle through a few > thousand more, hydro-carbon-haze and melting ice-caps not withstanding. > > > > -- > David H. Bailey > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > _______________________________________________ > Finale mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale > _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
