Are people really this stupid?

[Archangel122184]

When all else fails... forget about right way and make it up as you go! We don't need to know how to spell anymore!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060705/ap_on_re_us/simpl_wurdz_1

[oracle128]

Are people really this stupid?Who needs to even bother reading the article? Of course, the answer is yes, people really are that stupid.

They can spell things how they want if they're too stupid to learn how to do it properly; but I object to them calling it 'English', since it won't be the same language. But why bother creating a new language? There are already plenty out there that don't have the complexities of English (most non-latin-character-based languages, Esperanto (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto), Klingon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klingon_language), IPA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet_for_English)).

Here's a bold statement to consider: If people (as a collective) weren't stupid, we wouldn't need laws.

Score: -1, Flamebait

[Tortanick]

Oracle: score +1

I'm dyslexic, I can't spell properly to save my life. But even I think thats stupid!

But on the other-hand spelling a Redneck or Texen accent hehe

[Archangel122184]

For those of you considerning supporting this... consider the difficulty you may have just had trying to read that junk. I seriously had trouble figuring out what some of those words were.

Flame bait? I just though it was a funny article :cry2:

[renegade600]

and the dumbing down continues...

[Archangel122184]

hahaha... I'll try to find the article, but there was a school district in Alabama, USA that wanted to round PI to 3 for ease of computation... now... I love math to the point that I can probably teach advanced calculus. This idea was both as intruiging and instulting as it was ludicrusly stupid. Much the same as rewriting english because people are too lazy to actually learn how to freaking spell. I say let Darwin take care of that bunch.

[Archangel122184]

Whoops, I was wrong... it was the state of Alabama, not just a school district...

http://www.nmsr.org/alabama.htm

[Vercades]

They really need to realize that people from different parts of the world say things differently then people from other parts of the world. I say worsh when I mean wash. List can go on.

[dammit]

English is English... nomatter what part of the world you come from. Sometimes I type the way I speak.. with a Lancashire accent which might confuse a lot of overseas visitors.. but I think most in the UK would get my drift.
Accents are strange... to give an example.. within 30 miles of where I live there are countless accents. Take Scouse for example (Liverpool) which is 20 miles away from me. Totally different and totally individual!
I can understand it OK but dread to think what anyone who has learned "proper" English thinks about it. :D
Manchester is a different one again... 20 miles away.
As is Bolton.. Wigan.... and Yorkshire accents also. Wont even mention the Scots/Welsh/Irish!!!!!
I have no trouble with any of them... but can see why other have problems!
The written word is not so bad to get to grips with... as long as you don't descend into your dialect.
If anyone has a problem knowing what I am talking about at times.... just say... lol

[Harrie]

I can see what you're talking about, dammit. But I agree with Archangel, though I don't know if I'd call it stupidity so much as a lack of a good education, which we have serious problems with over here. To encourage it is what kills me. Why IS dumbing down so popular, I cannot understand it! Wrong way to go for sure.....

[oracle128]

For those of you considerning supporting this... consider the difficulty you may have just had trying to read that junk. I seriously had trouble figuring out what some of those words were.Don't mean to switch teams here, but it's only hard for us because we were taught the correct way and we're used to it. If children were taught to spell words how they're pronounced and pronounce them as they're spelt, they wouldn't have that problem. It would in fact probably be easier (I'm no psychologist/linguist, so don't take my word for it). However just because something is easier, doesn't make it a good idea.

Flame bait? I just though it was a funny articlethe score was for me, I was expecting a backlash on my statment :D

Here's a question: If schools are being dumbed down these days (which I agree they are), what are teachers teaching instead? Or are they just not working as hard?

At first I would have said "teaching 10 year olds how to look and act as if they're 21 year old prostitutes(girls)/jocks(boys)", but I think the media is doing that, not the teachers.

[Tortanick]

You can have a match between how words are spelt and pronounced, or a match between how words are spelt and what they mean. Not both.

Not to mention the huge mess of trying to change the lanuge.

[Miz]

I can see what you're talking about, dammit. But I agree with Archangel, though I don't know if I'd call it stupidity so much as a lack of a good education, which we have serious problems with over here. To encourage it is what kills me. Why IS dumbing down so popular, I cannot understand it! Wrong way to go for sure.....

Why is dumbing down so popular? Because, in my opinion, the adults can't stand feeling bad when a kid struggles or...heaven forbid...fails!

I saw it when I was a teacher and I saw it when I was a riding instructor. The kids were generally willing to work to learn it...especially the riding horses part...but the parents couldn't stand to see them struggle and fail and try again.

The adults don't like feeling bad so they want to arrange the system to make sure every kid succeeds.

To me, it all gets down to the adults caring more about not feeling bad than they do about what a kid learns.

[Mr Bean]

If anyone has a problem knowing what I am talking about at times.... just say... lol

:confused: :confused: :confused:

[Snurfen]

Why is dumbing down so popular? Because, in my opinion, the adults can't stand feeling bad when a kid struggles or...heaven forbid...fails!

I saw it when I was a teacher and I saw it when I was a riding instructor. The kids were generally willing to work to learn it...especially the riding horses part...but the parents couldn't stand to see them struggle and fail and try again.

The adults don't like feeling bad so they want to arrange the system to make sure every kid succeeds.

To me, it all gets down to the adults caring more about not feeling bad than they do about what a kid learns.

I think you've got that in one. well said.

I had an absolutely astonishing discussion with one of the UK's top educationalists, about 10 years ago. I was asking him why his reforms were being placed on the secondary school system, then the conversation switched to my incrdulity about how "thick" our graduate intake for that year appeared.

We discussed the semantics of communicating. To my utter astonishment, he said we did not need to rely totally on teaching "Standard English" and "Recieived Pronunciation", as the key point was that the children could understand what they were being taught. In other words, slovenly grammar and sloppy speling were acceptable, provided each could understand the other. All well and good, but what about the rest of the world understanding/being understood by these oiks? I nearly chinned the old buffer.:curse:

[Harrie]

I do believe the nail has been struck on its head! That's it, Miz, that's it. Or at least, a very, very large part of it. And the really sad part is, they are just ripping off the kids in this way. Not only is not learning correctly or completely a bad thing, but to *think* that you have when you have not, oi. That's a crime. Even worse, though, is not learning the pleasure of trying, trying, trying again until you finally succeed. What more important life lesson is there than that?

Snurfen, do you think that educationalist's view was/is shared by most others?? Wow. How sad.

[Snurfen]

Sadly, yes.

[DELTREE]

I know of people that can spell very good, but what they say isn't to well.
The dumbing down is the problem: same old lib.... stuff.:sad:

[Nick Grana]

Alabama? Enough said.:dizzy:
Ebonics and now this. Another case of dumb and dumber.:cool: