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It might interest people to know that Latin and Greek were required in the US for college bound students back in the 1920s. Latin, at least, seems to be making a comeback.
At the turn of the twentieth century, more than 50 percent of the public secondary-school students in the United States were studying Latin. Until 1928 Latin enrollments in U.S. secondary schools were greater than enrollments in all other foreign languages combined, and in the mid-1930s the number of Latin students rose to 899,000. This is not surprising, since Latin was commonly required for admission to college and was seen as the mark of an educated individual. Latin continued to be the front-runner for about another twenty years, until Spanish took the lead. Still, over the next ten years, Latin enrollments generally kept pace, rising 46 percent, compared to 56 percent for Spanish and 90 percent for French. Despite a sudden postwar drop in Latin studies (the number of students fell to about 429,000), Latin was fairly secure in the curriculum, and the numbers grew steadily thereafter.
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In 1958 in response to a national concern in the United States over the nation's global status in mathematics and science, Congress passed the National Defense Education Act, which omitted support for all Latin, except at the graduate level. Latin soon began a gradual decline, though it retained much of its old cachet. This would soon change, however. In 1962 there were 702,000 students enrolled in Latin classes in U.S. secondary schools. By 1976 the number had dropped 79 percent, to 150,000, largely due to pressure for more relevant and elective courses at all education levels. The classics profession began a swift counteroffensive, and by 1978 enrollments were on the rise once more. More recent data suggest a slight leveling off at grades nine through twelve, with a total enrollment of 188,833 students in 1994, representing some 1.6 percent of the total enrolled population. New growth areas include middle-school Latin, with more than 25,349 enrolled in grades seven and eight, and 4,265 elementary students of Latin.
Yes, I read your post. It was a sorry excuse for someone who is ranting about the "dumbing down" of education making a writing error. We're not talking here; we're writing. There's (not there's or theirs) a difference. The cutsey emoticoms do not help make the point, either.
Sorry, that's not what's going on in our brains. Our brains consider this a casual conversation. It's more of a typed conversation than writing. It's talking through our fingers. It's casual. Grammar and spelling mistakes are not really mistakes so much as oversights because they are things that you just don't think about when talking. Our brains are in the same mode they're in when we're talking to someone when we post on boards or text.
Sorry, that's not what's going on in our brains. Our brains consider this a casual conversation. It's more of a typed conversation than writing. It's talking through our fingers. It's casual. Grammar and spelling mistakes are not really mistakes so much as oversights because they are things that you just don't think about when talking. Our brains are in the same mode they're in when we're talking to someone when we post on boards or text.
"Our"??? Who's this "we" Kemosabe? A poster who does not know the difference between the possessive and the plural on a forum about dumbing down education shows it and you are mounting this incredible defense! Some of the mods post stuff about proper grammar as a part of their signature, e.g. "to, too, two", and "their, "there'" and "they're", etc.
"Our"??? Who's this "we" Kemosabe? A poster who does not know the difference between the possessive and the plural on a forum about dumbing down education shows it and you are mounting this incredible defense! Some of the mods post stuff about proper grammar as a part of their signature, e.g. "to, too, two", and "their, "there'" and "they're", etc.
This is based on casual research (not mine). My experience backs this up. You'll see a lot of misuse of words like too, two and to and their, there and they're. As long as it sounds right people seem ok with it. I'm not going to lose sleep over silly errors.
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