Why English in Hichschool curriculum?

[underaged!]

Why? really? what the hell language am I typing in now. Why must I study poetry, myths, sentence structure, etc, etc. Am I supposed to become a great writer? I believe "core" courses should be opitional. (My guitar teacher taught my that belief.)

My cousin told me to tell my teacher "Eh, I no need be in dis clas, I spek pidgen(sp)."

All you local braddas out there know what I'm talking about.

 

[Grover_Cephas]

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." - RobertHeinlein

Lit is important because it tells you where we come from. Modern philosophy makes much more sense when it's in context.

Grammar is important because simple mistakes can make you look foolish in important circumstances, and cause people to overlook your talents.

With all the pressure to specialize today, I think we need _more_ emphasis on teaching people to be well-rounded. maybe then we could find a president capable of pronouncing "nuclear".

 

[underaged!]

Can you do all that stuff buddy?

I think I might, except that most of them like the invasions and butchering, I would not do well.


Hey hey now, do you guys write sonnets?

 

[Emanuel]

Got idea. Talk better. Combine words. Make sentences.

 

[Asha'man]

*high school

See?

Ash

 

[underaged!]

Actually my teacher said "High school" is the "new"/contemporary way of spelling it, and in the past, it was one word.

OMG, :barf: I remembered that...

 

[Asha'man]

Either way, it's "high", not "hich".

Just bustin' yer balls. See? You did remember something from class! Keep that up and all will be well.

Ash

 

[Grover_Cephas]

Can you do all that stuff buddy?

Workin' on it. I'm plenty young yet.

 

[EasEWryder]

Got idea. Talk better. Combine words. Make sentences.

LMAO

Underaged!,
English classes infuse you with the skills needed to communicate with people who think they are better than you.

 

[underaged!]

Either way, it's "high", not "hich".

Just bustin' yer balls. See? You did remember something from class! Keep that up and all will be well.

Ash

OOOO. Fixed, just like your balls! Jk Asha'man

 

[maximus otter]

"Street slang makes youths 'unemployable'
By Nick Britten

Terms like "fix up" and "what's gwan" may be popular on the street, but they are costing thousands of youths the chance of a job because they cannot speak English properly, according to education and business leaders.

The proliferation of street slang and text messaging has become so problematic that many youngsters are now "virtually unemployable".

Gulfram Khan, the chairman of the Conservative Party in Aston, Birmingham, said the language barrier was costing youths jobs.

"This means that they are either not getting jobs or getting the lowest form of menial work," he said. "A lot of them go to interviews and are completely unable to express themselves in that sort of situation. While they may fit in on the streets, in the workplace they stand out like a sore thumb. If you can't speak good English, how can you expect someone to give you a good job?"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/03/11/nslang11.xml

"I can't even talk the way these people talk: 'Why you ain't, 'Where you is...' And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk... You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth!"

Bill Cosby

http://www.nationalcenter.org/P21NVMartinCosby604.html

maximus otter

 

[Esav Benyamin]

Children are often unaware that adults were once children themselves, but outgrew it, whereas children haven't had the opportunity to be adults yet.

Similarly, until you've learned the intricacies and benefits of expressing yourself well in a variety of situations, you may not understand the value of it. But you will.

Does knowing less about an important aspect of existence make you a better person?

* ****** **** ****** *​

By the way, I write sonnets. Also limericks. And haiku. It's fun. On the New York Times "Urban Haiku" forum, I noticed a new poster by the username of sgian dubh, and a tagline of "God bless America, land that I love. Stand beside her and guide her through the night with the light from above." So I responded with this:

Fighting for the right,
liberty in jeopardy,
the black knife strikes home.​

 

[Esav Benyamin]

My cousin told me to tell my teacher "Eh, I no need be in dis clas, I spek pidgen(sp)."

All you local braddas out there know what I'm talking about.

You could learn a more formally developed creole known as Tok Pisin, which is probably the most widely understood language of Papua New Guinea.

Robert Eklund’s Tok Pisin Page
Tok Pisin by Jeff Siegel
Tok Pisin-English Dictionary
Radio Australia Tok Pisin Service

 

[Daniel Moore]

I love English. I'm more of an arts and literature fan over math and science (actually, I just hate chemistry, Astronomy and Biology are always good). Without English class, I hate to think what would happen to the common speaking. Regions would develop heavy dialects, the "lol r u nuts or somthin" would probably spread to serious wrting. :barf:

No, no, a lot of people have a hard enough time with English, I don't think getitng rid of English class will help.

 

[Andrew Lynch]

If you want to be coldly practical, good communication skills are still crucial. It's the number one thing companies look for in new employees these days.

 

[Point44]

Your other choice would be to drop out of high school and become a guitar god.

Stop complaining about education. There's always something useful to be learned even if you don't realise it yet.

You ever wonder why a lot of adults say they regret not studying this and not studying that when they were younger?. As you grow older you'll understand that a lot of the stuff that you thought you wouldn't ever use in your life is suddently so important.

I only wish i could converse or write as well as Esav and Gollnick.

I like spikking england.

 

[mwerner]

As much as l love literature and language, I just could never quite "get" diagramming sentences... We did this endlessly in high school, ending up with blackboards full of dangling participles and other bits....Utterly pointless as far as I could tell.

 

[Wunderbar]

You can learn more if your grammer and vocabulary are very indepth. Through out history, nations with complex languages have been able to further themselves more than cultures that use simple languages. A good example of this would be nations like Great Britain, Germany, Japan, and the United States. Being able to communicate and put thoughts into action has allowed these nations to excel in the areas of industry and science. Other nations that use simple latin based languages such as spanish, are not able to able to apply thoughts and express themselves in industry and science they way that complex languages allow.

 

[DaveH]

Excelling in industry and science has more to do with the factors of investment of capital then anything else. While english may have become the defacto comman language for business and science it's because that happens to be the language of the current largest producers and consumers of science and business.

A few hundred years ago, the standard language for business and science may have been french or italien, some hundreds before that the standard business and scientific language was latin. Previous to that it was probably greek and egyptian.

That issue aside, I will agree that being able to express yourself well, and being able to understand the world around you through language will be a positive influence on your life.

 

[Grover_Cephas]

You could learn a more formally developed creole known as Tok Pisin, which is probably the most widely understood language of Papua New Guinea.[/url]

The way I understand it, the various flavors of Yiddish are also creoles.

Hell, come to it, _English_ is a pretty widespread creole...

edited to add: ...aaaand a nice little "me too" post to mark #500