SAT English dropped again..

[Marcus McFlufferson]

I just heard on the news this morning, the new SAT scores are through again (in England). They're for the 14 year olds I think.. or something.. they mentioned 14 year olds.
Either way, they said that English had dropped again. This is something of a disapointment really. I didn't learn proper grammar until I hit college because High School were so terrible at teaching it, and it just appears as though they're getting worse.

Rant over..

Discuss!  

[ljosberinn]

Ouch.. that made my stomach pang :/

So you're saying the problem isn't necessarily the students, but the teachers?

 

[Sachiko13]

Hardly surprising. It is my opinion that grammar should be taught in elementary school. After all, it used to be called "grammar school" for a reason. I have a friend who didn't even know how to read until she was seven, and once met a guy who couldn't read until he was twelve. I honestly don't know how that happens.  

[Marcus McFlufferson]

ljosberinn

Ouch.. that made my stomach pang :/

So you're saying the problem isn't necessarily the students, but the teachers?

Yes.
When I was in primary school the teacher did quite often pick up on my general grammar errors, like mix ups with their/there and here/hear.
She would complain at my mother that I didn't know these.
My mother would tell me the once.
Then it was ignored until the next year.

Yeah, I guess mother could have been the blame, but the only reason that would be is because the TEACHER relied on the PARENT to TEACH ME.

In High School, they didn't even pick up on it really. They would put red circles around my work, but never explain the correct terms. If a student went to a teacher to ask, they were quite often fobbed off as it was considered a menial subject.

You would think that it would be a difficult task to teach children their basic grammar rules with all the avoidance of doing so.. When I hit college and the tutor realised the disgrace of every single student in her class not knowing their basic grammar, she took two lessons out of the time table to specifically teach us. That's all it took.  

[ljosberinn]

Oh my. That's horrible. Almost makes me want to teach grammar neutral
I don't really know how well we were taught since I have this natural feeling for grammar. I honestly can't think of one Icelandic grammar rule that I could explain as a rule for anyone, yet my Icelandic grammar is extremely good.

 

[MadnessFreak]

Bring back the cane.  

[Gilco]

I knew people who handed in work with phrases like "Those peoples" and "You guyses". Sad thing was there were being serious. The teacher would just give them a 2 or something assuming they were just being stupid with their grammer and walk away.  

[x_Chromatic Zelda_x]

MadnessFreak

Bring back the cane.

Agreed.  

[little_evil_goth]

As a child I was put into an experimental Grammer class and glad, it put me ahead of my classmates by three years, ((And it stayed that way right into high school.)) and yet my lessons were no more than 3 single periods of about half an hour every week. So why was it so hard to do that in my regular class? Half the other children had trouble spelling the simplist of words. For example at the age of nine a friend had to ask me how to spell "Hello". And it drove me insane. I constantly had everyone asking me how to spell words for them - where was the responsibility of the teacher?
Math was not much better. I never learnt all my time-tables. I still do not know them all.

The level of education around the world and in first world countries is disgraceful.  

[SilverMaple]

Most people these days make spelling mistakes they never seem to correct.

An Honors student asked me in US History class how to spell 'attorney'. And she told me she was really into court cases. gonk  

[red_moon_wolfess]

You mean it isn't taught in elementary school? I have known how to read since..... god.... as far back as I can remember. I read my first "chapter" book in the third grade. I was never good at spelling thou, but grammar I was fine with. My mom remembers me correcting my doctor's grammar when I was little and able to talk (( I personally wasn't old enough to remember the incident)).

I also remember weekly spelling tests in Elementary school, and grammar notes that we had a test on every month. Although when I got to high school and thought it was all over with, apparently the rest of my class couldn't spell or use proper grammar! It pissed me off to an extreme! I was back were I started taking the same damn notes that I took for 6 years in elementary!  

[MadnessFreak]

demented pandora

MadnessFreak

Bring back the cane.

Agreed.

Yay! I'm glad somebody sees the point in raw behinds. =P  

[Kohy]

That's different...everything I know about grammar was taught to me in Primary School. When I got to Secondary school, I found english boring as nothing new in the terms of grammar were ever taught. I learnt how to better essays, write statistical reports as well as letter reports, give better descriptions and the use of larger words in my work, but grammar never seemed to be a problem. Prepositions, prefixes, who/whom and me/I and subject and object pronouns along with others were taught at a young age.  

[Starry Phoenix]

I had never been successfuly tought English before 10th grade. I was always impossible to teach, and a frusterating student. But once i hit my sopmore year at my school i was introduced to a wonderful resource teacher in English who finaly did the impossible! He actualy got me to understand english! After that I never had resource Eglish again! Now my grammar is steadily improving. The teacher I have now is also a miracle worker! She is great at everything she teaches!

For me I think that the teacher who can successfuly teach me english after years of failure is a true one!  

[Mrkurosakie]

ljosberinn

Oh my. That's horrible. Almost makes me want to teach grammar neutral
I don't really know how well we were taught since I have this natural feeling for grammar. I honestly can't think of one Icelandic grammar rule that I could explain as a rule for anyone, yet my Icelandic grammar is extremely good.

I've been able to read since I was three years old, no joke either, I even read some verses from the bible(I'm not religous anymore), I swear I'm not joking at all. Ever since I can remember I've immensely enjoyed reading, especially Anne Mccaffrey, and Isaac Asimov(R.I.P), basically Sci-Fi, and Fantasy novels enthrall me. I actually read the diary of anne frank when I was five.