Homestead mailing list

["Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>]

Over 50.  Sometimes I need to slow down the fingers <g>

Gene, I worked at a community college and at public schools.  I've
volunteered for decades helping kids get scholarships so they can go to
college.  The kids aren't more literate unless knowing how to Blackberry is
the criteria.  Most can't pass the English entrance exams and have to take
lower level English classes.  Sometimes several before they can get into
English 1A.

When I went back to school, back in the late 80s, I was absolutely floored
by the number of kids who were in English 1A who had never read anything
"deeper" than video game directions or Danielle Steele!

They hadn't a clue about Shakespeare other than "didn't he write the movie
Romeo and Julliet"?  Plato?  Aristotle?  They hadn't even read 1984 or Lord
of the Flies.  IF it had been assigned, they bought Cliff Notes. War &
Peace?  Nope, that's a movie, isn't it?

I challenged a whole bunch of classes and aced every single one of them.  I
hadn't been in school for over 20 years.  I mean, multiple guess questions?
Give me a break. How could anyone who can take a test not ace them.   Then
did some tutoring.  Sorry state of affairs when a high school dropout is
having to tutor Honor students in what the differences are between simple,
compound and complex sentences.  Having to tell them they shouldn't be using
double negatives.  Huh?  What's a double negative?

As to the name.  Well, quite honestly, most of the time they simply didn't
care!  Shuffle them through and don't take anymore time than absolutely
necessary!

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gene GeRue" <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
> What is "the over populace?"
>
> The reason my last name is spelled as it is is because of census
> takers of a hundred years ago who wrote it down phonetically because
> one of my forebears apparently couldn't spell her husband's last name,
> Giroux. Or the census taker was of limited writing ability. Lots of
> names changed because of illiteracy.
>
> Btw, I graduated in the 1950s. The kids today seem lots more literate
> than I was then.
>
> And, no, I did not like school.