Basics are missing {Update} (A literate generation?)

Member Name: Karon

Product:	A literate generation?
Date:	19/11/00 (10 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: computing and email

Disadvantages: teachers not correcting spelling and Dooyoo allowing spelling to go uncorrected

I'm 29, I don't have children so i don't know how literate very small children are, but I have noticed a definite decline in literature in the ten years since i have been at work.

The "new starters" of around 18 years of age very often have no idea how to spell. Their grammar is often very poor and they have no idea how to construct a simple business letter.

In the last few years at school I noticed that teachers had lost interest in correcting spelling errors and made comments like "well, I understood what they meant." This is simply not good enough. Once you get into the work place, your manager will not be very impressed by mis-spelt letters going out to clients etc.

It doesn't take long for literacy levels to fall once the adult population have not been taught the basics. A large part of literacy must begin in the home - if a parent cannot spell or write correctly, then how can they teach their child?

More emphasis needs to be given to spelling and grammer from an early age. The Internet might also not be helping in basic language skills when some people persist in silly phrases like "How R U. ", but as email continues to grow in popularity more and more people must begin to be able to construct proper understandable sentences. Otherwise we are all on the slow road to decline.

UPDATE

Worringly a few days after writing this opinion I got an email for someone at Dooyoo re one of my opinions. In this email the person concerned said that "spelling and grammar were not important" regarding writing a Dooyoo Opinion. I am absolutely horrified by this remark, and I certainly would not rate anyone as "very useful" if they cannot grasp the basics of the english language. The remark was both hypocritical when this topic is currently up at the forum and also perpetuates the general slide in literacy in our society today. If you are not part
of the solution, then you are part of the problem.

Summary: