Posted on 04/04/2011 4:58:33 AM PDT by Kaslin
I’m getting to be a crabby old man and I’m not even fifty. But working at a liberal university for eighteen years has taught me never to accept responsibility for my actions or my disposition. Instead I blame my most recent bad mood (the one I’m in right now) on a student who just asked me a question about the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case United States v. Leon, (1984). Wanting to know the holding, he asked if it meant “that the police can rely upon a search warrant they don’t reasonably no is invalid.” I almost told the student there was know way he was going to pass my course if he didn’t no the difference between “know” and “no.” But I just new I would get in trouble if I did.
Of course, when criticizing the low quality of students in higher education it’s important that we not pick on males only (that would be sexist). No discussion of the declining quality of student communication skills would be complete without talking about the role (or was that roll?) of female students. After all, they make up more than 50% of the student body on the average college campus. You are (like totally) aware of their presence when you hear a conversation like the following, which occurred last Tuesday right outside my opened office door:
“I’m just like not real sure what I want to do when I graduate? I like thought I would like major in business but there’s a lot of like math and stuff? Plus, the classes in sociology are like easier and like way more interesting? I just seriously like need to focus on like what I want to do when I get out and stuff?”
None of the young woman’s sentences were actually questions. But the inflections at the end of each sentence (along with the general lack of confidence in anything she said) made them sound like questions. I mean, it made them like sound like questions? I’m sure that that woman has a Facebook account with a “like like” button. So she can like seriously like. And stuff.
Of course, it is racist of me to have just given two examples of declining student quality using white students. Let’s (like totally) fix that by recounting a conversation I heard just this morning as I was walking up the stairwell in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Building, which is sure to be re-named Mike Adams Hall after I retire.
“You did dat. I did not do dat. Yo. Dats right. It’s yo fault. My situation? What about yo situation? I do dat. I do dat. But dats because you done did dat. Dats what I’m sayin’. Dat’s what I be sayin’.”
I have no idea what that young Hyphenated-American student was saying to his cell phone. All I know is that I have the song “Zip-a-dee-do-dat” stuck in my head. Thanks to the Diversity Office it’s the new “Song of the South”!
As much as I enjoy broaching these topics with humor the results aren’t funny when these students get out into the real world to compete in a full-time job applicant pool. So there has to be a serious discussion of how this problem became so pronounced and what can be done about it.
It would be tempting to blame these kinds of problems on the university English departments. After all, they rarely teach students English these days – opting instead to indoctrinate them into post-modern philosophy and radical feminist politics.
It would also be tempting to blame the Schools of Education that pay wacky professors like Maurice Martinez to teach “black English” to white students. Instead of asking the minority to conform to the majority they do the exact opposite – probably because it is more difficult and, hence, would require greater government intervention (read: greater federal grant opportunities).
But the problem is much broader than that. It is a problem stemming from our basic educational mission of promoting multiculturalism and diversity. In this age of diversity we are reticent to correct students for speaking in a “wrong” way or to reward them for speaking in a “right” way. To do either one of these things is to admit that there is a right or wrong way of doing things in any given cultural or social context. Professors who are unwilling to agree that English is the “right” language to speak in this country are hardly willing to assert that there is a right or wrong way to speak it.
President George W. Bush was considered an idiot by most college professors simply because he was inarticulate. One of my colleagues even circulated an email saying that Bush was responsible for the fact that most college students are inarticulate. But Bush is no longer in office and the problem keeps getting worse. Multiculturalism has come up short in our efforts to promote linguistic skill and social competency. It’s time for a new strategery. I think you gnome sayings. Gnome sayin’?
It's not a conversation when there's only one person speaking!
I would have said ‘I think I’ll get you the or something...it gives me a much broader range of merchandise from which to choose.’ (didn’t end my sentence with a preposition...Miss Kidwell, my middle school English teacher, would be very proud.)
Maybe our posterity can learn to take in laundry and run restaurants. It's like, you know, way easier than learning math and stuff. My wife used to have a special ed kid whose parents were Chinese immigrants. The kid had trouble with both English and math, but he worked diligently. His ambition was to go to West Point. I do not know what became of him, he'd be about 20 now. I bet he'd make one helluva good officer.
Yes, that would have worked. “You know what I mean!” says Bill. “Yes, but do you know what you mean? Do you mean that you would like me to buy you a hair dryer?”
He would have had trouble drying his hair with a new vinyl tablecloth ;-).
Can’t stand google. Much prefer dogpile. Google brings up too much.
Plumber, electrician, locksmith, mechanic, etc...
Things folks need, but no one wants or has the skills to do.
And, like the other poster said... gunsmithing may be a VERY valuable skill very soon.
My theory is that the “ambiguous interrogative” style of speaking comes from the cultural Marxist movement (PC)
that deems it offensive to be sure of oneself or one’s own opinions.
My benchmark libinlaw’s biggest complaint about my wife and I is that “you’re always so sure you’re right”.
Mr. Adams fails to recognize that socialist and collectivist managed schools are the problem. That most of our nation's children attend these **government** schools inevitably led to this problem.
For example, we have the most advanced and effective medical system in the history of humankind. Due to the professionalism of those now in the health system and the medical schools that support the system, once it is socialized it will continue to be effective. Over time, though, it will degenerate.
So....While our very first socialist, compulsory, and collectivist-managed schools were effective it was due to the underlying character and values that the earlier teachers, parents, and principals brought into the system. But....Our government schools were doomed to failure because they are fundamentally socialist, godless, and collectivist managed by the voting mobs.
In the quote above, Mr. Adams suggests that if we removed multiculturalism and diversity from the government schools that they would be fixed. NO! It is impossible to fix a socialist, collectivist, compulsory, and godless system.
Solution: Begin the process of privatizing all education.
Solution: Conservatives! If you love your children and want secure future for them, we MUST MUST MUST work to shut down all government schooling. We must work to see that all children have access to a PRIVATE and conservative education that thoroughly integrates the child's specific Judeo Christian religious belief, and our nation's founding principles, into all aspects of the child's education.
Children who attend godless, socialist, compulsory, and collectivist schools WILL learn to be comfortable with socialism, compulsion, collectivism and WILL learn to think godlessly.
I suppose, if I were an exemplary mother, I could have just bought Bill the hair dryer without hassling him, but I’d like him to reach adulthood able to make a simple request or statement without throwing in null-sounds.
My father would say, “Let your voice drop - you’re done!” and my mother would say, “Always be positive, even if you’re wrong.”
>>>Of course, I don’t want to paint with a broad brush and say that “all” teachers are lazy — but most definitely are. Teachers in government schools are vastly overpaid for the quantity and quality of the work they do. They will whine that this characterization is unfair, but they’re just wrong.
We need to close down government schools, and let parents send their children to schools where actual learning is demanded. Teachers at such schools will perform or be fired. No unions, obviously.<<<
I’m a teacher. I would like to disagree with you, but your statements are accurate. The good news is that I would thrive in a private school environment. Bring it on.
Fo' shizzle...
Haha! Both my boys have very short hair. It cuts down on using the detangler in the morning ;) I make up for it by spending mega bucks on the nearly 13 y.o. daughter who has incredibly thick and curly tresses. Now if I could get her to USE the styling products so she didn’t look like a Brillo pad in the mornings when I drop her off for school. She thinks pulling it back in a ponytail fools me. Her little sister (almost 7) has stick straight silky platinum blond hair. It just grows so darn fast!
Miss Kendig(my high school English teacher) who weighed about 90 lbs., 65 years old, strict disciplinarian, never sent anyone to Principal’s office and never had any behavior problems, would have flunked me for the year if I had used those words.
Other examples: to, too, two, your, you’re, there, their,hear, here, witch, which.
Reading these mistakes just drive me crazy.
That too
That would be a wise decision
Hows abouts Knowbama?
[I think it also shows how lazy parents are these days. My son occasionally tries to slip in a “neighborhood cool” type inflection to his voice. (He’s only 11 - it’s natural.) It gets nipped in the bud rather quickly.]
When my son was 11 he was told he must speak “adult” to me. He’s now 23, and there has been no trouble with interpretation since.
We Are One booklet: http://www.we-r-1.org/upload/weareone_teaching_toolkit.pdf
It’s April 5th..........
Much prefer dogpile... Google brings up too much....
So does my dog..and occasionally, the cat.
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