no, my guess is that with time this information will be forgotten. We might have learned this in the 7th grade but after awhile the reasons why and the situations of when its used will be forgotten…..the only reason I would have for trying to remember this stuff would be if I were to learn a foreign language

and keep in mind that slang and accents may affect word usage as well (or text messaging)

🙂

I used to be a horrible speller until I started reading a lot when I was about 13. Now, even if I’m not exactly sure how to spell a word, I know when it just doesn’t look right. I think just being exposed to words and grammar through reading is all that is needed to teach spelling and grammar. Plus, having parents who speak proper English helps. My husband is…not very smart. My kids have picked up a lot of things from him, such as “ain’t” and double negatives. I’ll be homeschooling them so I hope we can avoid all the usual pitfalls of public school “education.”

I saw someone’s answer mention the “No Child Left Behind Act.” Don’t bite my head off for saying this, but I’m a Bush supporter. However, he was wrong here. Schools that have the highest scores are obviously doing okay. It’s the schools with the lowest scores that need extra funding for more teachers and resources.

By the way, I dropped out of school in the 9th grade. When I was 18 I got my GED. I took a 6 hour test in only 2 hours and scored a 99 on the “Interpreting Literature and the Arts” section, plus I was offered a scholarship. I took the test on a whim with only a day’s notice and didn’t study one bit. I did well on the test, I believe, because I’m an avid reader and love to learn, despite the ten soul-crushing years I spent in the public school system. After I dropped out, I pretty much homeschooled myself. 🙂

Most school curriculums teach Enlish Comprehension only; not English Grammar

The students are expected to learn English Grammar by assimulation.

The English language is one of the hardest languages to teach and learn other than Chinese and Japanese and similar languages.

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The examples are not actual spelling errors. They are Gramatical errors.

Same thing with “Their, They’re & there”.

Their is a posessive pronoun (plural)

they’re is a sentence contraction for they are

there is a place as in “over there”.

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People will say to me “Your pretty/nice”.

How do you know whether or not they are using Your or You’re when they make a vocal statement. “”say””

Answer to: Are schools just spouting out idiots OR are people just lazy & stupid? I learned all this punctuation, grammar, etc when I was in 7th grade

Do NOT categorize people as STUPID or LAZY just because they do not speak and/or write English as well as you.

You used examples of mispelling which were actual errors in grammar. You also tried to SAY you can tell whether or not a person is using Your or You’re when they make a vocal statement.

Shall we judge you the same way you wish to judge others.

Good Luck

1) The schools are so busy Not Leaving Children Behind, that they aren’t taking the time to teach spelling & grammar, much, any more.

2) Common people use incorrect grammar, more frequently than in the past.

3) The taxpayers in some big states (like California) choose not to fund education, so there is no money for spelling textbooks, the way there was, before

4) People are in a hurry to answer questions on Y!A so they don’t want to bother to use Spell Check.

5) Many people don’t have English as their primary language, so they make second-language mistakes.

6) Writing is not a priority in the schools. Reading seems to be first; then Math, or v.v., but never Writing.

Well, I can say my grammar is bad and I am in my final year of engineering. I am great in math and problem solving stuff, but grammar is a bit confusing to me. I mean I get the basics and I do speak a bit better than the average joe, but it is a struggle for me. As engineers we joke that our poor spelling is why we invented spell check. I know growing up I never understood why some people struggle so much with math. When I started helping my little brother with his homework I realized no matter how much I helped it was mostly beyond his comprehension. In some respect, I think it is a matter of genes and the environment you grew up in. Not to mention the fact that even though we learn these things in grade school we are surrounded by a society that continually uses improper english. In general it is probably a combination of several things that effect the way we all speak and write.

Well to be honest with you, I learned that lesson in 5th grade, maybe even before…and I never forgot what my teacher told me. Same as you, it annoys the heck out of me when people get those words mixed up, using them in the wrong situations.

Why does this happen though? Obviously, we’ve all learned this in school, so that purely serves as proof that people are just plain LAZY AND STUPID.

Some people just do not get everything in English classes!

There are words I cannot spell “off the cuff”, like last night, I was expected to spell the word “sarcophagas”. I am not an archeologist, so instead of “gas” I spelled it “gus”. Most times, I spell words correctly and I had spelling in college.

May God bless you.

P.S. Some people are not as bright as others.

I always wondered that! Thank you! I speak 3 languages, and I never made any error of this kind in any of the languages. I also notice people say: “he don’t” instead of “he doesn’t” ….I wonder why…

Me thinks them schools aint not learning them youngins no good English.