Welcome to Gaia! ::

On the same subject, Gaia has helped me in writing in general. Obviously not in grammar, but I've gotten better at creative writing and thinking up things on the spot thanks to role playing. I know it is weird, but my writing scores have been on the rise since I joined Gaia. I joined when I was a sophomore in high school, and now I'm a sophomore in college.

I have seen my typing speed degrade since leaving eighth grade, but Gaia has brought it close to what it was before. Now entering the ninth grade as a freshman, I just hope I retained enough to make it in Honors Enriched English. Also, to test into it, but that's on a different note.

Not sure how many of you folks play "Magic: The Gathering" but I thought you would like to see this regardless.

One problem is that people don't read anymore, so they arn't exposed to correct grammar.

*Insert* are not

Thank you, I full heartedly agree with you. The lack of literacy, as with all times, has been due to the lack of reading. Medieval times, to the present, not reading is the single cause of illiteracy. I believe the internet has no effect on this, barring the ease it is to conduct "txt tlk" now.
To believe that people, and spell check ignore the word "beleave".

Illiteracy
noun
1. ignorance resulting from not reading
2. an inability to read [ant: literacy]

I agree as well. In my middle school, only about four other people enjoy reading that i know of. Isn't it sad when even in Advanced English only two people like to read? crying

Though no one has posted here in a while, I'll add my two cents.

I personally think it is a mixture of a bunch of reasons. Since the television was invented, kids have spent less time reading and more time on their butts in front of a box with light. This was the beginning of extreme child laziness. Then computers were invented, and with computers came the internet. When chat rooms and instant messagers were first used by American youth, no one thought to drop all their vowels and make complete fools of themselves. But one day some genius thought to shorten their words into incomprehensible little fragments. This person talked to other people, who most likely assumed that this 'cool' way of talking was the norm. So they started using it, and it spread. It caught on so because it appealed to the laziness that these kids had acquired from watching their telly so much and these children didn't want to appear fools for not using this cool new lingo.

And now we are in this era, where we are forced to make exclusive guilds in order to find people who know grammar.

I want that book! Everytime I go into a bookstore I look for it. Alas, I have not the money required for such an item. It is a sad time when I have no money with which to buy books. crying

Anyway here is my opinion on this subject:
The school systems of today are greatly lacking in the education department. Take my old high school for example. Math: The foriegn exchange student corrected the teacher on almost everything. We never had homework. History and Geography: Wait? Those were offered at my school? Oh yeah, that was the class where the coaches were supposed to teach and never showed up to the class room. Spanish: The teacher tried to fail a second string freshman football player and almost got fired over it so he decided since the school didn't care about educating the kids, neither did he and turned his class into a free for all. English: "Now, don't worry about spelling and grammar. We're just trying to bring out your creativity and everyone passes this class so don't even worry about your grade." I promise that I am not making this up. Ask any one who attended Turpin School in Oklahoma from 1998 to 2001. They can afirm what I am saying. Our school systems are all about making the kids happy and feel good about themselves (which I think is having the reverse affect) not about educating them so that they can survive in the future.

My high school education makes me very angry and extremely sad. It is a wonder that I know anything at all. I had only one good teacher who actually taught. Mrs. Moore. Everyone hated her but that was because *gasp* eek She actually wanted them to learn something!! Who would have thought that a teacher would actually teach a class? The only other good teacher we had was Mrs. Depew the Typing teacher. She only gave out 3 A's in her 15 year career. No I wasn't one of them. I barely passed her class with a C.

Anyway enough of my ranting....