The death of proper grammar (sentence, speech, paragraph, quote)
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...as well as saying "ax" instead of "ask." My daughter never returned to that school. We have school of choice in our county and I enrolled her in a different school district. The teacher at that school tested my daughter and discovered that she was reading and writing at the 12th grade level and it was due in large part to the books that she had read at home (a lot of Jack London) and not the instruction that she had received in school.
Well, technically, 'ask' is an ignorant usage and 'aks' is the original form (from the Saxon or Old English, I forget). That's often the case with 'ignorant' usages -- they're not so much ignorant as artifacts of a time gone by.
But that's not the point. Point is you are right -- NO teacher should discourage a kid from learning, or putting their learning to good use.
I had a similar but much better experience in the first couple weeks of first grade. I already read at about a 4th grade level (I read my first complete novel when I was 4 or 5) and had worked out enough phonics to puzzle out almost any word. And I was already a fast reader. Anyway, I zipped through the first grade primer in a few minutes, closed the book, and sat there fidgeting because now I was bored. The teacher told me to read my book, and I said I was already done. She didn't believe me, so she had me read aloud a passage from the teacher's handbook. No problem! Next thing I knew I was in the principal's office being tested, and shortly I was promoted to second grade. Best thing that ever happened to me.
Of course, this was back in 1960, before all those "modern education" methods damaged the whole concept of teaching.
Incidentally, that first novel I read was Gray Canaan by David Garth. I grokked the battles (and re-enacted them with my toy soldiers) but the boring romance part went overhead at about 30,000 feet.
Well, technically, 'ask' is an ignorant usage and 'aks' is the original form (from the Saxon or Old English, I forget). That's often the case with 'ignorant' usages -- they're not so much ignorant as artifacts of a time gone by.
But that's not the point. Point is you are right -- NO teacher should discourage a kid from learning, or putting their learning to good use.
I had a similar but much better experience in the first couple weeks of first grade. I already read at about a 4th grade level (I read my first complete novel when I was 4 or 5) and had worked out enough phonics to puzzle out almost any word. And I was already a fast reader. Anyway, I zipped through the first grade primer in a few minutes, closed the book, and sat there fidgeting because now I was bored. The teacher told me to read my book, and I said I was already done. She didn't believe me, so she had me read aloud a passage from the teacher's handbook. No problem! Next thing I knew I was in the principal's office being tested, and shortly I was promoted to second grade. Best thing that ever happened to me.
Of course, this was back in 1960, before all those "modern education" methods damaged the whole concept of teaching.
Incidentally, that first novel I read was Gray Canaan by David Garth. I grokked the battles (and re-enacted them with my toy soldiers) but the boring romance part went overhead at about 30,000 feet.
From Wiktionary
Quote:
Well, technically, 'ask' is an ignorant usage and 'aks' is the original form (from the Saxon or Old English, I forget). That's often the case with 'ignorant' usages -- they're not so much ignorant as artifacts of a time gone by.
I was reading National Geographics, all sorts of reference books, and entire collections of short stories before I entered Kindergarten.
Thankfully, this was long before political correctness entered the schools. Instead of taking me to task, the teachers congratulated me.
This has bothered me for years. Every time I hear someone say, "A troop was killed today.", I assume they mean more than one - until they say one name.
Hmmm... let's see some literary sources for this ask/aks thing.
Okay, I found it. I was going to provide proof all the way back to Old English (it seems that would have been incomplete ) until I looked-up the word in Saxon. It seems Saxon was acsian and Old English was ascian. However, I think the whole ask/aks thing today is an example of linguistic metathesis.
Whew, I'm glad I found the references - I hate the taste of crow.
Last edited by Dirt Grinder; 02-05-2014 at 12:16 AM..
Hmmm... let's see some literary sources for this ask/aks thing.
Okay, I found it. I was going to provide proof all the way back to Old English (it seems that would have been incomplete ) until I looked-up the word in Saxon. It seems Saxon was acsian and Old English was ascian. However, I think the whole ask/aks thing today is an example of linguistic metathesis.
Which may be, but the more common literary form was aks/ax -- eg. Chaucer. There was nothing 'incorrect' about it until the past 100 years or so.
This has bothered me for years. Every time I hear someone say, "A troop was killed today.", I assume they mean more than one - until they say one name.
This just hurts my ears.
Same here. It will say "12,000 troops..." and I'm thinking "how many are in a troop?"
I don't think that the majority of people who say "aks" today are doing it because of they are fans of Chaucer (who wrote Middle English). It hurts my ears when I hear it and I will not answer a question if it is "aksed" of me.
Something else that bothers me is when someone is reading the news on TV or radio and they mispronounce the word "awry" as in "gone awry" as "Awree."
How could they have reached that level of their profession and not be familiar with the phrase "gone awry" and its pronunciation?
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) until I looked-up the word in Saxon. It seems Saxon was acsian and Old English was ascian. However, I think the whole ask/aks thing today is an example of linguistic metathesis.
And this just hurts my eyes: "H/she was a trooper (it's trouper).
