Category: Education

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“Just too much to bare”

*sigh*

Apart from all the books I read (back up to a little less than half the number per week of my peak of a 23/week average of some years ago), I read, well, just about everything I can get my hands on, physical or virtual. While I don’t read as many blog posts every day as I once did, I read a lot of those too. More and more it seem the trend in all sorts of blogs is toward less and less literate expression. Two small examples from a blog at a site for health professionals:

” …the humor of the ______ was too much to bare.”

“By this point all of the racket had also waken up ______________.”

No, Mr. 20-Something IT Pro for a health institution: “too much to bear”. And “waken up” isn’t correct here either. “Had… awakened” or “had… woken” or even the poorer “had… wakened up”.

It’s as though more and more people have never read anything written by a literate person, and more and more people have never heard a literate person speak English. Well, of course. Most are products of public schools. Perhaps as many as 1/3 (perhaps) of students ENTERING high school are proficient readers of English, according to Scholastic.com (pdf here). Perhaps. Of those who go on to graduate college (self-selected to–maybe–be more literate, whatever that means, than their peers), almost 31% are literate enough to read their way out of a paper bag, actually a decline in reading proficiency from their entry into high school.

Is it any wonder that our (once, formerly) representative republic with all too many democratic elements is in trouble? Do the right thing: read more. Read material that’s written well and researched well and presented as honestly as possible. As much as possible, encourage others to do the same.

Your grandchildren will thank you.

*sigh* The first blog post I read today (on a political “analysis” site) offered more evidence of the trend noted above (I swear it I read this kind of crap a.] so you don’t have to *heh* and b.] ALL the time–unfortunately–while trying to gain info that fleshes out background the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind obscures or otherwise lies about… not that the Hivemind is any better at literate expression).

“phenomena’s”

No, a.) the plural of “phenomenon” is “phenomena” and b.) trying to form a plural by using an apostrophe is nothing short of stupid.

“over looked”

It’s one word, not two.

ly’s (“The problem ly’s…”)

*ack-thbbt!-spew* LIES, dumbass! Dual stupidities here. “Ly’s” isn’t even a word and the use of the apostrophe is so monumentally stupid as to be almost a landmark stupidity. This guy’s parents and teachers should be shot, and he should be dragged over hot coals on the way to being tarred, feathered and burned at the stake. Hopefully before he reproduces.

“the support is cult like”

The preferred formation is “cult-like”.

“ITS not an anti gay amendment…. its pro morality amendment”

Of course, NOW when apostrophes are REQUIRED the dumbass subliterate moron doesn’t use them! Of course.

But this sort of thing is rampant, and not just in “citizen journalism” so-called.

“Something Barack Hussein Obama seems to know nothing about.”

Want more? Surely not! Well, one simply cannot go to ANY Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind outlet and not receive an assault on literacy. Consider a current (May 11, 2012) headline:

“First Male Masseuse Who Sued Travolta Admits He Has WRONG DATE…”

WTF?!? A masseuse is a woman who gives massage. A male who does so is a masseur. How these people who write such things can live with themselves I don’t know.

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I Knew That!

And what I knew was… wrong. For values of “wrong” that include the outdated. You see, when I was in grade school, I really, really did not pay attention most of the time. First grade taught me that school was a bit stupid. “Who are Dick and Jane that I should care one whit about their inane activities?” was the basic reaction my six-year-old mind had to the silly idea that I should be taught to read, for example. I was a naturally ego-centric six-year-old, and so I really could not understand why people were trying to “teach” (for values of “teaching” that included crippling my reading with “look-say” crap) me how to do something I already did, less well. That tended to color my response to school right off the bat.

But there were subjects that caught my young mind, even though the methods of presentation were boring or off-putting. Geography is one example. Maps had fascinated me from my earliest recollections of them. Boundaries, places, geographical features: all gripped my imagination. So, when in third grade the subject of the countries of the Americas–North and South–and the States of the Union were presented in class, I ate that stuff up with a spoon.

But I never noticed until just recently that in 1960 Brazil had changed its capital. That’s 52 years of “seeing” (in my mind’s eye) the capital of Brazil as being in the wrong place, with the wrong name.

But that’s OK. I don’t plan on traveling there anyway. *heh* That’s kind of how I view African nations anymore, too. I DGARA anymore what someone’s calling some crappy lil third world country this week or what the latest warlord has declared to be the capital.

Oh, wait:back on topic? OK. The map is not the territory, even with the best maps colored by the most fecund imaginations. And the best maps are incomplete, outdated. Even the county assessor’s aerial survey map of my own house is inaccurate and outdated (two slightly different things: the property line is an approximation and there’ve been notable changes in exterior structure, etc. since the photos were taken).

All models of reality are just that: models, approximations based on a data set which is necessarily less than the reality they represent. What we know from models is even less than the models themselves, because the models are always based on more information than they represent and our grasp of even the models themselves may well be incomplete as well. And reality is a moving target while models, or maps, of reality are at best snapshots.

And that’s part of the problem–not all by any means, but part–with the Cult of Anthropogenic Climate Scare-ism models and true believers’ dogmatic acceptance of the Cult of Anthropogenic Climate Scare-ism’s high priests’ pronouncements from those models. All the models the cult bases its beliefs on are extremely simplistic representations of a few climate factors from a huge, highly complex system, so the models themselves, as has been demonstrated over and over again, are deeply flawed (none of the Cult of Anthropogenic Climate Scare-ism’s models predicting doom and gloom have yet been able to “post-dict” previous era’s climate, for example. If they cannot “post-dict” what temperatures, for example, were in 1900, then they’re essentially useless in predicting future temps).

Just remember whenever someone says “the science is settled” in any area–not just the area claimed by the Cult of Anthropogenic Climate Scare-ism–maps change, and maps are far less complex and open to change than our understanding of the simplest things in scientific endeavors. Read Aristotle. Genius. Wrong. Read Newton. Genius. Wrong. Read Galileo. Genius. Wrong.

Read Cult of Anthropogenic Climate Scare-ism’s high priests. Dumb. And Dumber. And “wronger” than any of the geniuses who preceded them and whose graves they piss upon with their insistence that their poor models–rain-faded sidewalk chalk sketches of a child’s crayon drawing of a painting of a photo of a shadow of a statue of a man would be a more accurate representation of a man than Warmistas’ models are of climate change–have “settled” the science.

Remember: just because the capital of Brazil was Rio de Janeiro (under two different names) for about 400 years doesn’t mean it still is.

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“A Day Late…

Forty-six years ago, I purchased a set of books, the Great Books of the Western World as compiled by Mortimer J. Adler, et al. The 54-volume set was a tad expensive for a high school kid (twice what I paid for my first car, in fact; nowadays, USED copies of the set run from ~$350 to ~$1,200 on Amazon), but has been a great resource for decades. Sadly, the bindings are in rough shape (largely the result of toddlers getting their hands on ’em a couple of decades and more back, as well as simple wear from use), and some volumes are in downright raggedy shape.

Fast forward to today. I picked up 40 of the 54 volumes in excellent condition at a library books sale of donated books. Most appear completely unread, untouched, although volume 1 of the complete works of Shakespeare is well worn (though still not as worn as my original copy). Glad to have ’em. Oh, why only 40 of the 54? Well, volume 2, the first of two volumes comprising the “Syntopicon” was missing from the donated collection, and 13 other volumes had been purchased by one person before I purchased the rest.

I’ll probably print up some book covers for the “raggedy” copies in my original set and place them in among the “new” set for use, as I still use them for reference, although I have re-read few of them entirely in the last couple of decades. I may also add volumes from the 1990 “second edition” of the collection, at least some works that I don’t already own in other editions as separate copies–who doesn’t already own at least one copy of Kierkegaard’s “Fear and Trembling” for example, or “Waiting for Godot” [Beckett], Animal Farm [Orwell], etc.? I think I may skip volumes 59 and 60 (heavy on 20th Century) from the new edition. I despise Joyce, detest Faulkner and Ftzgerald, and Virginia Woolf gives me a rash. The ones in the collection that are worth anything, IMO, I already have, usually in multiple copies (Brecht, Beckett, Chekhov, Eliot, Shaw and others), anyway.

The recent “classes” via Hillsdale College dealing with the Constitution (thanks for the tip, Diane) have already gotten me re-reading background the Founders drew on in the discussions that formed our national government, so this is a timely find for me.

So, I worked a little bit tonight on some bookshelves. *heh* I may actually get our books organized more sensibly this year. Hey! It could happen! At least I have plenty to read and plenty to re-read (and plenty that’s worth re-reading) handy.

BTW, from that great *cough* reference work, Wikipedia (which nevertheless does have a few good articles), this:

“The scientific and mathematical selections also came under criticism for being incomprehensible to the average reader… “

Well, boo-hoo. Literacy is more than just puzzling out weird hieroglyphs on a page. Other criticisms of the collection are on a par with that one. *yawn* Yes, it’s incomplete, but hey, “Great” used to mean something more than simply “good” or “trendy” or “makes feminazis and multi-cultis feel good”.

Addendum 2: It’s interesting, to me at least, that this work was compiled and the “Great Conversation of Ideas” (largely via the tool of the Syntopicon–a monumental work in and of itself, IMO) fostered as a project sponsored by the University of Chicago, and yet The Zero, that soi-disant “constitutional scholar” who (mis)taught as an adjunct prof at that institution, seems completely unaware of the works (and ideas) contained in this collection except in a sort of weird, twisted mythological manner, since he never seems to get references to Western Civ (history OR concepts) anywhere near right.

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Impending Doom

Every day, I see evidence that those in our society who make their living by the written word are increasingly influencing the remaining few who bother to read at all with illiterate pronouncements, accelerating the slide into nonsense. Case in point (just one of many over the last few days alone):

“Clearly, the tablet and mobile worlds have begun to impact the desktop OS in a major way. This begs the question: Can the desktop survive?”

Methinks the writer has no idea what a petitio principii fallacy is.

Beg the question=”take for granted without basis or justification”

I just hate it when “mass man” semi-literacy (or should I say “cultural illiteracy”?–w/a tip o’ the tam to E.D. Hirsch, Jr.) debases writing this way. But that’s what happens when supposedly literate people have been trained–certainly not educated–via less than literate organs such as pubschools, contemporary “higher ed” and the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind. Ah, well, I suppose it’s just one more evidence of society’s slide into a Dark Age, when more and more people don’t even know much about what they don’t know… or care. And it is, of course, this increasingly self-enstupiated, self-deluded, autolobotomized group that seems to be guiding the course of our society. But then of course,

“In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history are in the majority and dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance.”

Continue reading “Impending Doom”

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Yet Another Cavil, Gripe, Grumble, Complaint

Full Curmudgeon Mode, I suppose… *sigh*

Something I’ve noticed more and more recently–and even worse, found myself unconsciously influenced by!–is a growing occurrence of sentence fragments used in the place of complete sentences. It doesn’t seem to matter what the genre is, either. I’ve seen it (of course *arrgghh!*) in the simperings, whinings and blatherings of the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind, in academic writing and in fiction. The use of sentence fragments that are nothing more than prepositional phrases in place of complete sentences is especially pernicious.

I suppose some may be excusable in casual writing as some sort of contemporary method of adding emphasis to a preceding sentence. Maybe. But it’s seeming to become pervasive, invasive and influential as it corrupts clear, concise writing.

It’s irritating, especially when coming from the pens of otherwise capable, competent, effective writers. Are they simply trying to write for the ADD/ADHD crowd, those whose attention spans can’t grasp the use of commas, conjunctions, semi-colons and other means of joining independent clauses, and who even stumble over the simple addition of a prepositional phrase modifying or expanding upon an independent clause?

Thankfully, my writing style does drive off those whose grasp of English falls within the parameters of “Me, Tarzan. You, Jane” or “See Dick. See Jane. See Dick run. See Jane run.” I really don’t want or need anyone reading my screeds who’s too lazy, inattentive or stupid to understand sentences longer than three or four words…

Oh, well. It’s not as though I gave a rat’s patootie; it just chaps my gizzard a wee tad.

/rant off

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“Through a glass darkly… “

In case the source of the post title or the King James English is a puzzle to some, here’s a quote (and reference to the context) and brief commentary before I get to the substance–whatever there may be–of this post:

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. From 1Corinthians 13

Of course, the “glass” seen “through… darkly” referred to above is a mirror. The “through” instead of “in” (as we would have it today) reflects both changes in language and a particular view of the world–and mirrors ion particular–common for millennia up through at least the time of the court of King James, a view common enough even in the 19th Century to make Lewis Carroll’s use of it immediately accessible to his readers. The “darkly” is a common (in the day) reference to a cloudy mirror whose silvering has become delaminated or tarnished, reflecting *cough* the Greek passage’s reference to a tarnished mirror made of polished metal.

So, “Through a glass darkly” refers to an imperfect reflection of reality.

Simple, right? It ought to be obvious from context, but many people seem today to make the silly assumption that it refers to looking through a window in some manner.

Sidebar: I view anyone who cannot read and grasp the language of the KJV Bible or Shakespeare’s plays and poems in (close to*) Shakespeare’s language to be at best semi-literate. At best. These two bodies of work are simply the best literature in the English language and worthy of being grasped on their own terms.

Now, to whatever scraps of meat there may be in this post.

I was treated this AM to a brief glimpse–on two levels, which led to more that aren’t germane to this post–into the meaning of this excerpt from the famous Pauline passage. First, from this post at Ann Althouse’s blog (go ahead and read it for context if you will), two comments:

Oh, and by the way, as you sit at your COMPUTER to read this, remember what conditions it was produced under & think again about those evil, slave-holding, cotton producing, antebellum Southerners.

That’s you in the mirror.

And

Your computer comes with a mirror?

Strangely, the computer I was sitting at when I read the second comment was–dimmly–acting as a mirror. A 15.6″ glossy notebook screen in a room well-lit by direct sunlight? Mirror. *sigh*

And yes, I could see the semi-validity of the first comment, although the commenter’s analogy was seriously flawed. I’m more in the position of those (often British and Northern) consumers who wore cotton clothing made from slave-produced cotton exported for manufacture into other goods than the position of a slave-owning Antebellum Southerner (of whom the South had relatively few compared to its general population of free persons).

Yes, I benefit from the “Made by slave labor in China” effect, though the computer I was having my face reflected by was not produced with very many “made in China” parts and pretty much contained only a few materials derived from Chinese slave labor–mostly the rare earths materials exported by China and used in products used in America primarily because the “feddle gummint” makes mining and refining our own resources prohibitively expensive.

Still, what are my choices?

Well, at least I won’t be buying any Apple products. *heh*

*OK, so what’s the deal with “Shakespeare’s plays and poems in (close to*) Shakespeare’s language”? Simple. We have editions of Shakespeare’s plays which may or may not reflect accurately what was originally written, and though we have substantial evidence of Shakespeare’s work to go by, even less evidence of his actual work than we have textual evidence concerning differing versions of biblical works. “Close to” is good enough, though, to let us benefit from the richness of Shakespeare’s work, regardless of who the author was (another can of worms that doesn’t matter any more than it matters “which” Homer–if any–wrote Odysseus *heh*).

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No, That’s Not What Bothers Me

Fake iPad 2s made of clay have been sold at a couple of Canadian electronics stores.

Fake iPads made of clay were sold to as many as 10 people in Vancouver, Canada, CTV News reports. The fake iPads were sold at Best Buy and Future Shop, after scam artists bought a real iPad with cash, and replaced the device with modeling clay.

The scammers then brought the fake iPad back to the store and returned it for a full refund. Future Shop and Best Buy put the returned devices directly back onto the shelf, where other customers bought it. Mark Sandhu bought his wife, Sundeep, what he thought was an iPad 2 for Christmas. Instead, they both got a surprise when they opened the box.

Whoop-de-do. *yawn* So? They were tablets, weren’t they? *heh* No, what bothers me, really bothers me, is this sentence in the FoxBusiness report:

Future Shop and Best Buy put the returned devices directly back onto the shelf, where other customers bought it [sic].

Someone want to parse that for me? The dumbass who wrote the report really should be fired.

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Petty Puny Peccadillo

(Yeh, yeh, one more example of scesis onomaton, as if anyone really gave a rat’s patootie. ;-))

Sometimes I am more than a wee tad irritated by otherwise literate folk misusing the first (and third) person singular past tense of “be” when the speaker or writer obviously means to express the subjunctive mood.

Irritating? Yes. *sigh* Just one more erosion of useful language by acquiescence to the lowest common denominator of society, more evidence that the least fit are shaping our culture.

Ah, well. At least I might not live long enough to witness the complete, absolute and utter collapse of civilization… (But it’s looking more and more as though my grandchildren almost certainly will.)

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It Seems Obvious, Now That It’s Mentioned…

Jerry Pournelle has frequently said (in various ways),

As to the role of the federal government in education, the proper role is for the Congress to set up, in the District of Columbia, the best system of education it can devise, and let that be a beacon to the world. And if it cannot do that, it ought to abandon the pretense that it knows how to run schools In Kansas City, Missouri, or Mineral Well, Mississippi, or anywhere else.

The feds have no legitimate business whatsoever meddling in local schools, tinkering with the education process. Period. As Pournelle says, until they can operate ONE school district well–the only one they have a clear mandate to supervise–the feds don’t even have a reasonable excuse for messing about in our local schools. As it is, the D.C. pubschools are THE clearest example demonstrating the failure of the feds to have anything worth contributing to local schools.

BTW, the link above is to a post that meanders through several topics, all of current interest and all cogently reasoned. Worth reading.

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At Least It Wasn’t On “Black Friday”

Aside from the “reporter’s” lack of ability to write plain English*, this is, well, I’ll let y’all decide just what it is:

Woman Caught Making Meth Inside S. Tulsa Walmart

* “…lack of ability to write plain English”? Well, the whole thing is written on about a sixth grader’s prose level, but “Police say surveillance video shows Halfmoon had been in the store since noon. Six hours later security noticed she was acting suspicious [sic], so they called Tulsa Police.” *gag*

Laying aside the other content (SIX HOURS LATER “security” noticed something wonky?), “security noticed she was acting suspicious” indicates, as parsed in standard English, that SHE was suspicious of something. What the subliterate moron who penned the line means, though, is that “she was acting suspiciousLY” (“was acting” modified by the adverb “suspiciously” not the adjective, “suspicious”).

And then there’s that whole “time out of joint” thing with tenses in the lede. “Tulsa police arrest a woman for mixing chemicals to make meth inside a south Tulsa Walmart on Thursday.” No, dumbass, past tense: arrested.

So, we have a report of someone attempting to manufacture meth IN a WallyWorld written by an unethical subliterate who is apparently paid to write prose that negatively influences the literacy of others. A _professional_ taking money for doing substandard work like this is, IMO, a thief. Both persons should be jailed. Maybe they could share a cell. And some drugs.