Posted on 04/12/2005 10:06:43 AM PDT by crv16
Dan Horwich's English class is a bastion of clean language, where students read the classics and have weighty discussions free of invective and profanity. But when the bell rings and they walk out his door, the hallway vibrates with talk of a different sort.
"The kids swear almost incessantly," said Horwich, who teaches at Guildford High School in Rockford, Ill. "They are so used to swearing and hearing it at home, and in the movies, and on TV, and in the music they listen to that they have become desensitized to it."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I am 63 years old, and have never heard fowl language out of my parents mouths.They are both gone now, but our children in turn, have not heard fowl language. When I hear it coming out of their mouths, it greives me terribly!!!!! The rule here" If you don't hear it at home, DON'T say it!!" Laura Inghram really came down on this today. GOOD FOR HER!!!!!!!
Well, I don't pray to Snoop Dogg or to Eminem.
Yes.
The principal (me) does not stand for it (homeschool)...
I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Maybe so, but that's more the problem of the receiver if you ask me.
I believe that would be "foul" language...unless you're referring to speaking like a duck!
:o)
But the older kids had to learn the words somewhere as well - didn't they?
And while the teachers may not be able to lather tongues anymore (mostly because of parental complaining)they can and do control the language in the halls.........I know, because I have witnessed it.
You have to define "foolish" in that passage. What does it mean, in your view?
Does a drill sargeant act foolishly when he uses vulgar language to beat a point into his recruits' heads?
In one word....Yes
Swear words, used to highlight a point, are used by the drill sargeant to make it abundantly clear that a certain mistake made in training can be lethal on the battlefield. Using clean language would not have the same effect.
So, if the use of swear words by the drill sargeant makes it more likely that a recruit will remember a lesson that might later save his life, do you still consider such language to be "foolish?"
So you're saying that there is no such thing as a "proper" way to speak? There should be no socially acceptable standards for "polite" conversation?
I think what it boils down to is respect. I would never want to disrespect her, and I wouldnt want my child to see me disrespecting her. I think what goes around comes around!!! Im glad Laura Inghram got into it today.
"But it's not the swear words at fault here, but whatever culture the little darling is immersed in"
Yes, that's true. However, consider that a third of a child's day is spent in school. That makes the school environment a very big part of his culture. And a part that most parents rightly expect will be benefical to their child. You're right that many kids are raised by parents who just don't care how poorly their child acts or speaks. They may not have a problem with their kids swearing like a sailor around the house. But what about the parents who try to raise their kids to behave with class and dignity? Shouldn't the schools do whatever they can to reinforce good, socially acceptable communication skills?
Let the gutter-mouths talk like trash at home.
As I have said several times - I can go along with the peer group issue, I've experienced it with my daughter - but her "peer" learned it from her parents. and I know this because the parents are friends of ours and have a tendency to forget they are not on a construction job site at times the children are around.
However, peers are NOT the school. If more children were taught by their parents NOT to use those words the amount of peer pressure to do so would decrease.
There is a minority of foul language learned at home from parents that are fools and teach it to their children.
I was a teenager before I ever uttered the word for excrement - but that was only after having heard it from my father after he dropped a brick on his foot.
I'm not surprised. Many kids, raised on rap and Ozzy reality shows, aren't capable of saying two sentences without a profanity.
And I'll get flamed here even more for my puritanical views: It doesn't even have to be a string of repititious profanities...I cannot stand to hear girls or women utter ANY swear word.
Double standard? Yes, I'm afraid so. But men are by nature rough, coarse and uncouth (until they decide to get some refinement). A girl or woman who says a filthy word...loses a great deal of respect, in my Old-Fashioned opinion.
Foul language is becomming commonplace for even the very young anymore. Last year, I was driving down a road by my house and there were three kids walking out in the road. I told them they should use the sidewalk instead of the street, and one of the girls who couldn't have been older than 12 promptly flipped me the bird and told me to '**ck off'.
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