Uh...can you text me a title
Chelsey Crow
Issue date: 2/4/10 Last update: 2/4/10 at 4:27 AM PST
Section: OpEd
These days, it seems that education, especially literacy, has taken a back seat to entertainment.
Sure, everyone has a million things on their plate. Going to college is difficult enough, let alone juggling a job or a family along with it. When selecting or taking classes, it seems that many view language arts classes especially as a burden and only take it because it is required, and not because they wish to really learn anything.
Most of us know English, but shouldn’t we seek to know it well? Not only are communication skills necessary evils of getting an education, but also are valuable in many aspects of life.
There are reality TV shows on almost every network pushing out real writers, as well as instant blogging replacing news sources. Not much value seems to be given to being able to write in most aspects of the media.
With things like Twitter and texting dominating our lives and making communication conveniently simpler, it seems that verbal or even formal written dialogue is starting to resemble texting more and more.
I was amazed to see that college-level English classes still review basic grammar and punctuation rules.
This isn’t solely the fault of students, however, as the public school system has failed most of us. But we should be fighting to be educated in today’s society, not fighting to stay distracted.
America is behind much of the world in education, and our entertainment industry certainly doesn’t promote literacy or intelligence above consumerism and vanity.
It is easy to be distracted by things that are currently more pressing, like family, money, or just staying employed, but when it seems that the world is crumbling around us, perhaps we should be reading the news or a book instead of our Facebook feeds.
Sure, everyone has a million things on their plate. Going to college is difficult enough, let alone juggling a job or a family along with it. When selecting or taking classes, it seems that many view language arts classes especially as a burden and only take it because it is required, and not because they wish to really learn anything.
Most of us know English, but shouldn’t we seek to know it well? Not only are communication skills necessary evils of getting an education, but also are valuable in many aspects of life.
There are reality TV shows on almost every network pushing out real writers, as well as instant blogging replacing news sources. Not much value seems to be given to being able to write in most aspects of the media.
With things like Twitter and texting dominating our lives and making communication conveniently simpler, it seems that verbal or even formal written dialogue is starting to resemble texting more and more.
I was amazed to see that college-level English classes still review basic grammar and punctuation rules.
This isn’t solely the fault of students, however, as the public school system has failed most of us. But we should be fighting to be educated in today’s society, not fighting to stay distracted.
America is behind much of the world in education, and our entertainment industry certainly doesn’t promote literacy or intelligence above consumerism and vanity.
It is easy to be distracted by things that are currently more pressing, like family, money, or just staying employed, but when it seems that the world is crumbling around us, perhaps we should be reading the news or a book instead of our Facebook feeds.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Karl
posted 2/04/10 @ 1:04 PM PST
The fault falls on us all, especially those who are in parental roles, who in this post modernistic world, have demonstrated a complete disdain for Godly morals and the responsibility of parents to teach and guide their children to strive for "the prize", ie: a good education and responsible, mature lifestyles. (Continued…)
Tony
posted 2/04/10 @ 1:31 PM PST
So much truth is this article...
Education is a tool to gain knowledge. Now its perceived as stepping stones for career goals. as such, people rush through it without learning a damn thing. (Continued…)
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