Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Dumbing Down Again

When we two parted
In silence and tears,
Half broken-hearted
To sever for years,
Pale grew thy cheek and cold,
Colder thy kiss;
Truly that hour foretold
Sorrow to this.


Lord Byron


He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.

Sir Winston Churchill



You're beautiful, it's true.

James Blunt



All three of the above were pupils at English public school, Harrow.

No-one can doubt their mastery of the English language.

But now Harrow, frankly disappointed with the atrocious standard of spelling amongst its pupils, is to give all its new A-level students a simple literacy test. Any pupil who fails will have to take extra classes in his own time until he is a master of basic spelling and grammar.

In a survey carried out for Geoff Polls, would you believe that 90% of 16 year old boys at Harrow could not spell a simple word like "privilege"?

And that 99% of these kids did not know the correct definition of the same word?

It truly beggars belief.

3 comments:

  1. Now be fair Geoff - 23K per annum isn't much to pay. Especially when you get a good whipping and spelling tuition for free.

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  2. And they're both in the boys' own time.

    We used to do homework in our own time.

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  3. That's pretty sad!
    They did this geography poll a few years back. There was a frightening proportion of Americans who had no idea what part of the country Massachusetts was in. Or maybe this just says something about Massachusetts...

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