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Our education system at its best
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 1:56 pm
by JJVP
Please read the comment from Mad MAxxx in the article below. That is a great example of the education system in this country today. Don't know if I should laugh or cry.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=37556" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Re: Our education system at its best
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 2:19 pm
by RoyGBiv
I find that style of writing pretty hard to read also... and I'm no fool (usually)

Re: Our education system at its best
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 9:32 pm
by JJVP
RoyGBiv wrote:I find that style of writing pretty hard to read also... and I'm no fool (usually)

I hope you are being sarcastic. I was not referring to the language on the "article", but to MadMaxxxx comment about the "article's" language thinking it was written by some pompous journalist. His ignorance of the Federalist Papers and of Alexander Hamilton who wrote that particular paper is what I was referring to, regarding the failure of today's education.

Re: Our education system at its best
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 9:39 pm
by RoyGBiv
Yes.. Sarcasm smilie..

Re: Our education system at its best
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 10:00 pm
by 74novaman
RoyGBiv wrote:Yes.. Sarcasm smilie..

No, don't use smileys. Use the sarcasm font.
Barack Obama is a great president
Re: Our education system at its best
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 10:12 pm
by Thomas
I know what the words mean in the article, but because I don't encounter words like that everyday, I can't just skim it to gather the article's meaning. So there is a problem; we aren't using descriptive words anymore. Too many people are just resorting to words such as "cool" or "stupid" without providing any explanation. People are getting used to thinking it's their way or the highway. Hardly anyone engages in constructive discussions on opposing viewpoints (while the word "argument" would have worked, it has the wrong connotation).
Re: Our education system at its best
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 10:44 pm
by C-dub

is the sarcasm smilie?
Italics is the sarcasm font? I thought

or

or

or

or

were the sarcasm smilies?
It is difficult to read because no one talks like that any longer. I did very well in English and literature in college, but I'm no master of the English language by a long shot. However, I could still comprehend what was written in that article.
Poor Madmaxxx.

Re: Our education system at its best
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 11:02 pm
by rcasady
guess he missed the beginning where it says Friday, December 26, 1787 ..lol i love it
that being said , its not the kind of article i can read and fully absord while watching Jersey Shore .
that was a joke ... or was it

Re: Our education system at its best
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2012 2:00 am
by TLE2
My favorite phrase:
...has no place but in the reveries of those political doctors whose sagacity disdains the admonitions of experimental instruction.
Beautiful.... If only we had statesmen today that could communicate with such erudition.
Re: Our education system at its best
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2012 6:58 am
by The Annoyed Man
Thomas wrote:I know what the words mean in the article, but because I don't encounter words like that everyday, I can't just skim it to gather the article's meaning. So there is a problem; we aren't using descriptive words anymore. Too many people are just resorting to words such as "cool" or "stupid" without providing any explanation. People are getting used to thinking it's their way or the highway. Hardly anyone engages in constructive discussions on opposing viewpoints (while the word "argument" would have worked, it has the wrong connotation).
Totally.
(That was sarcasm.

)
The fact of the matter is that almost nobody possesses a facility with the language any more which was once held by the common man. To read the letters written to loved ones back home by common soldiers in both the Union and Confederate armies during the civil war is to understand that people have lost the love of their own language in the intervening years. Very,
very few people are able to write like that anymore. I attribute it to the ease with which we are able to communicate these days. In a time when one had to painstakingly craft a letter by candle or lamp light, word by word, using a quill pen and a bottle of liquid India ink, people took their time to
think about what they wanted to say. They could not communicate emotion using a telephone or Skype, so they had to be able to convey their heart's deepest longings through the written word only. That is a dying art.
Re: Our education system at its best
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2012 7:03 am
by speedsix
...those who live life poised to pounce, criticize, and demean seldom trouble themselves with the facts...they think putting someone else down shows how smart they are...then they come off looking like M Maxxxxxxxxx...a total idiot...
...I think a lot of the deteriorization of the English language is due to the fact that people read very little these days...aren't exposed to the beauty of our language on TV nearly so well as in a good book...I hear more and more folks using words that don't mean what they think they mean...we were raised with a pen in one hand and a dictionary at least close to the other...now they rely on spelchekar...
Re: Our education system at its best
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2012 7:06 am
by The Annoyed Man
speedsix wrote:...those who live life poised to pounce, criticize, and demean seldom trouble themselves with the facts...they think putting someone else down shows how smart they are...then they come off looking like M Maxxxxxxxxx...a total idiot...
It's the verbal equivalent of "Glock leg."

Re: Our education system at its best
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2012 7:08 am
by speedsix
...that it are...am...yep...
Re: Our education system at its best
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2012 8:13 am
by Heartland Patriot
speedsix wrote:...those who live life poised to pounce, criticize, and demean seldom trouble themselves with the facts...they think putting someone else down shows how smart they are...then they come off looking like M Maxxxxxxxxx...a total idiot...
...I think a lot of the deteriorization of the English language is due to the fact that people read very little these days...aren't exposed to the beauty of our language on TV nearly so well as in a good book...I hear more and more folks using words that don't mean what they think they mean...we were raised with a pen in one hand and a dictionary at least close to the other...now they rely on spelchekar...
If anyone wants to see this in action, all they have to do is watch Bill Maher or Jon Stewart...because they are so "wise, learned and elite", and they will put down anyone who doesn't agree with them, IN THE MOST VILE TERMS they can get away with...and when some folks watch that, they get the message that its okay to do that. I try to keep my discourse civil unless someone makes it clear that they don't care about civil discourse.
Re: Our education system at its best
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2012 11:20 am
by VMI77
The Annoyed Man wrote:Thomas wrote:I know what the words mean in the article, but because I don't encounter words like that everyday, I can't just skim it to gather the article's meaning. So there is a problem; we aren't using descriptive words anymore. Too many people are just resorting to words such as "cool" or "stupid" without providing any explanation. People are getting used to thinking it's their way or the highway. Hardly anyone engages in constructive discussions on opposing viewpoints (while the word "argument" would have worked, it has the wrong connotation).
Totally.
(That was sarcasm.

)
The fact of the matter is that almost nobody possesses a facility with the language any more which was once held by the common man. To read the letters written to loved ones back home by common soldiers in both the Union and Confederate armies during the civil war is to understand that people have lost the love of their own language in the intervening years. Very,
very few people are able to write like that anymore. I attribute it to the ease with which we are able to communicate these days. In a time when one had to painstakingly craft a letter by candle or lamp light, word by word, using a quill pen and a bottle of liquid India ink, people took their time to
think about what they wanted to say. They could not communicate emotion using a telephone or Skype, so they had to be able to convey their heart's deepest longings through the written word only. That is a dying art.
Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.
Sir Francis Bacon