Hey. If you’re anything like me, you’re silently correcting everyone’s grammar, whether it’s when on the computer, reading the newspaper, or losing friends because they don’t appreciate the art of proper mechanics.
However, if you’re anything like my brother, you were never taught spelling or grammar until the seventh grade, where your teacher took it upon herself to find space in the curriculum and teach these twelve- and thirteen-year-olds proper usage.
Growing up, I always just assumed Roman (Ro) simply wasn’t grasping the basics of spelling and grammar. But earlier this year, when I saw that he didn’t know when to use a comma (seriously), I stopped and said, “Maybe this isn’t him, because I would think that he’d know how to use a simple comma by now!”
I did some research (a.k.a. asking my mom), and, come to find out, our public school system doesn’t teach spelling and grammar anymore. My mom told me that, and I struggled to comprehend it. How in the world is that even possible?
I remember someone saying that the school didn’t teach it anymore because now everyone uses computers, which have spell check, so, therefore, knowing spelling and grammar isn’t necessary, because the computer does it for you. I think it actually might have been the school itself that said that.
Can I just say something? Spell check doesn’t always know what you’re trying to say. Hell, it almost never does! Half the time, it wants to correct “of” to “on” even when I use it correctly. Also, I type regular words correctly, and it automatically changes them sometimes, confusing me. Another thing is, spell check doesn’t work very well for grammar. Thus the name of “spell” check. It does the basics of grammar, and that’s it. It also messes up a lot.
Personally, I like the look of red pen corrections. They stand out, and you don’t ignore them like you ignore half of the wrong suggestions in Word.
I don’t just blame the schools, though. I also blame the Oxford Dictionary. They added some words to the dictionary that shouldn’t even be used outside of texting! Anyways, if they’re going to do that, they should at least add Bazinga. #AddBazingaOxford
It truly is sad how spelling and grammar are slowly becoming lost arts. They should be necessities. Instead, they’re thrown aside, though of as unimportant because technology can supposedly do it all.
They’re so important, though. I mean, computers can’t talk for you, can they? They can’t make that amazing first impression. And let me tell you, if I were hiring someone, I wouldn’t want them to talk like “they don’t knows nothing” or “rite liek dis” either. Even if you didn’t know how to capitalize or use commas, I probably wouldn’t want you working for me (unless you didn’t have to do any writing at all). I mean, you would represent my company. I wouldn’t want bad grammar and/or spelling to tarnish my company’s name (especially because I wouldn’t be able to be in the same room without going all OCD on you).
My question is, why do people “srsly” (why is there a red line under that?! It’s in the dictionary!) believe that they can get through life without knowing proper usage? There’s just no way! You cannot seriously tell me that you honestly expect that not once in your entire life will you need to know it. You use it every day! When you represent yourself online, employers don’t want to see “som1 who tlks liek thisssss all da tiem” because they know they can get someone who actually knows how to write in English.
Maybe the majority of people in the US should read this….
Any thoughts on this? I can’t be the only one who’s noticed this, but maybe our public school system is the only one to actually believe that? What do you think?
Anyways, this post was written in response to this week’s Weekly Writing Challenge. It said to write about a “lost art” so I thought about spelling and grammar. And, if you comment, please, please, please use proper mechanics and spelling!
-Sam
P.S. As always, the original picture URLs can be found by simply clicking the images. I do not own the images, nor do I pretend to.
Sammi Talk 