Why English in Hichschool curriculum?

Some years ago, I read The History of English; a companion book to the PBS series. Fascinating stuff.
 
I have that book , yes it's fascinating....English is the language for business ,finance, transportation etc in the world today. Mastering that language IS important. If you speak and write poor english you will immediately be taken as an uneducated unintelligent person and will limit your success in life. BTW, ebonics = poor english.
 
No, you don´t have to study English ...

Or math, or history, or music, or anything, surely you can say that any particular subject is not important to you, Hey, I studied math in college but I had to take Latin and Greek etymologies and anatomy among other things in High school (Mexican High school).

Do people of High school age (PC term for kids) really know what they want ?, do they know what they should study ?, will English help them do better in life ?, it has certainly helped me but I´m Mexican and that´s different, of course I did study Spanish.

I suggest that you take advantage of the privilege that you have getting an education, learn all those things, enjoy it and dwell deeper into what interests you most.

Luis
 
Why is English in the High (two words) school curriculum?

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Why? Really? What the hell language am I typing in now? Why must I study poetry, myths, sentence structure, etc, etc (unnecessary). Am I supposed to become a great writer? I believe "core" courses should be opitional sp. (My guitar teacher taught my me 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. All of you know what I'm talking about.

Why study English? So you can correct other people's grammar on www.Bladeforums.com. ;)
 
High school is more about making you learn what its like to suffer 5 days a week , than getting you to learn transient verbs. It's all an attempt to get you ready for the working world
 
Ken_McCarty said:
High school is more about making you learn what its like to suffer 5 days a week , than getting you to learn transient verbs. It's all an attempt to get you ready for the working world
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When my son was younger I would stop him from doing some things and when he asked why I would answer that life isn't fair and you may as well get used to it from now. English is one of those things that you are going to have to do. Many here have given very good reasons for having to study english but the bottom line you study english because you have to and you try to do well because trying is indicative of your character.

Want to give up? Want to join the losers brigade? If you want to succeed in life you might as well get used to trying to do your best in EVERYTHING you do. It is the only way.
 
kamkazmoto said:
Esav, How the heck did you ever find out about Tok Pisin?
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I'm a linguist. I've been studying languages and how they work for years. I even developed my own phonetic alphabet when I was in high school.

Pidgins and creoles are a fascinating tool for investigating the mechanics of language, and Tok Pisin is in a unique postiion among them: still an early creole, but used extensively within a high-tech civilization.
 
You don't have to like it, you just have to do it.

I wrote that in my daughter's grammer school notebook. I think it was 2nd or 3rd grade. The teacher, a sensitive type, questioned me about it.
"Isn't that a bit harsh Mr. Ebbtide?"
I explained to her that the quote above is the bottom line. The sooner one learns the bottom line, the easier life becomes.
That was many years ago. My daughter has since graduated from one of the top all girl Catholic High Schools here in NYC.
She attends a big east college on scholarship.

And if you think English is tough...try Latin.

Hi Skool is da joint yo.
Dig it now cuz lata ya gotta woik.
Da mo woik ya do now, the easiya woik ya do lata.
My Hi Skool friends all laughed at me back in da day. Dey wuz out havin fun, I wuz home doin homewoik.
Now they woik liftin stuff in warehouses & trucks while I sit in an airconditioned art studio playing with scissors & glue and make twice as much as them.
Dig?

Mom used to say that the world will always need ditchdiggers, so don't dispair :D

Diggin ditches or learning English, you don't have to like it, you just have to do it!
 
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Oh man underaged. I always hated English. I never got the point of writing a paper making assumptions about what a writer was thinking. It was pretty stupid. My freshamn year of High School my teacher literally wrote the book we used. (He was a Jesuit Priest, Fr. Bernard Stricher SJ, what else would he do?)

Junior and senior year i was in honors/ap english and would write papers in my math class before English. I always got a C+ at the lowest, and was usually a B+ English student. It sucked.

So, now, I find myself studying engineering. Let me tell you something: My English classes have become my escape. They take me away from the world of lab reports and math...which I love.

So, hold onto it and get into college. As the years pass, the classes get better. High level composition classes are cool because you basically make stuff up. You don't like something you read? Write a paper on how you hate it. It's a great stress releiver.

So, stick to it, and screw D's, get some A's...


But be ok with a B.
 
Geraldo said:
....Why study English? So you can correct other people's grammar on www.Bladeforums.com. ;)
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ROFLOL! :D

As an immigrant, I was FORCED to LEARN English so that I could attend public school. It is not my first language. I guess I was pretty good at LEARNING English because I became a writer. I was a pretty good writer so eventually I became President of an advertising agency (in fact, I owned it). As President, I had all kinds of company benefits - exotic vacations, exotic cars, etc.

And all because I was FORCED to learn English! :cool:

Stick with it - if only so you can speak gooder than your friends! ;) ;) ;)
 
Plumber576 said:
So, stick to it, and screw D's, get some A's...


But be ok with a B.
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That is poor advice. Never advise people to settle for less. B is a fine grade, IF that is the best you can do. However, it is NOT the best grade and settling for that should never be an option.

I started coaching football at a highschool this year that started football only 3 years prior. The boys have never won more then 1 game per season in the previous two seasons of playing. This year, the record was 6-4. The improvements were tremendous. However, we still saw things we could have and should have done better. We are not satisfied with 6-4. We will never be satisfied with anything less then perfect. To be satisfied with anything else is just a crutch.

JR
 
I wish I had BFC in high school... It was pretty hard to get explanations like these from people.

All day long I have to alternate between street and office. Great thread guys.

Esav,
Your Haiku was hella tight. ;)

Clear, concise, communication with anyone is a pretty useful tool. :D
 
Well Jeremy, a B is an improvement over an D. Some people are really D or C students

I was a high school swim coach and I know what it is like to lose an swimmer to grades. The kid was a D or C student, but a talented swimmer. I told him to buckle down, and really start trying. Aim for an A, and never settle. When a B comes along, thats ok, but you have room for improvement, The same goes with a time in swimming. Wining second is ok if you are doing better than before, but your goal is always first.

So, let me restate what I said before. If you are getting D's, start focusing on getting A's. If you get a B, be ok with that, but never lose focus of your goal. Strve for an A and make sure you someday acheive your goal.
 
Damn, I think I may have to go on a BF hiatus; I've got too much school work especially English work. My big projects right now are: a book report on The Good Earth, A term paper relating some quote to Hercules, and a group presentation on Merlin and his influence in the King Arthur story. Any help on any of these will be greatly apprectiated.

Also anyone knows how to play "Jumper" by Third Eye Blind (I just need the part when you do that C thing on the third fret)? I got an in-class preformace on Friday. Oh, this is for guitar.
 
What's the Hercules quote?

Do you know that Merlin comes from the old Celtic myths? Myrddin. Arthur was the leader of the Romanized Celts who were being overrun by the Anglo-Saxon hordes after the Roman Army abandoned Britain in the waning days of the Roman Empire.
 
underaged! said:
a group presentation on Merlin and his influence in the King Arthur story. Any help on any of these will be greatly apprectiated.
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Visit his birthplace, Caer Myrddin (Fortress of Merlin). It is now known as Carmarthen in Wales.

You might enjoy the film Excalibur, a retelling of the story.

maximus otter
 
You guys are the bestest. :p F* English. :D

The quote was from some guy, Mark Schoerer.

"Myths are the instruments by which we continually struggle to make our experience intelligible to ourselves. A myth is a large, controlling image that gives philosophical meaning to the facts of ordinary life; that is which has organizing value for the experience. A mythology is a more or less articulated body of such images, a pantheon. Myth is fundemental, the dramatic representation depest instinctual life, of a primary awareness of a man in the universe, capable of many configurations, upon which all particular opinions and attitudes depend."

Ya, so I have to relate this idea to Hercules, anyone know an online source for myths/myth related information?
 
Search, Grasshopper.
You have the internet at your fingertips.
I had a bicycle ride to the library and then had to deal with Dewey's Decimal System.
 
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