Prof says learning spelling, grammar, things of the past; smartphones can do the work

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Professor says kids no longer need to learn spelling and grammar because of smartphones. (yahoo.com)
Several skills that every kid once learned in school are going the way of the dodo in a hurry. Diagramming sentences is practically an extinct art, for example. Cursive handwriting and memorized multiplication tables look to be swiftly headed that way.

Apparently, the next thing that kids will no longer need to learn is spelling and grammar.

Sugata Mitra, a professor of educational technology at Newcastle University in northeast England, announced that traditional language rules are out of fashion, reports the Daily Mail. Kids don’t need to waste time on those things, see. State-of-the-art computers and mobile phones can make the necessary corrections.

Spelling and grammar are “a bit unnecessary because they are skills that were very essential maybe 100 years ago but they are not right now,” Mitra said.
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more at the link
 
We be headin to hell ina hand basket

;)
 
I don't know whether to :floorlaugh: or :pullhair: . I teach and have seen how badly Spell-Check can butcher a paper. Good God, they have entire websites dedicated to how horrible Auto-Correct can be.
 
I briefly dallied in the world of academia. Scoring graduate-level work riddled with text-speak and atrocious grammar. Discouraging to say the very least.

My four adult children and I have made a pact that we text and email in complete sentences with proper grammar. Lighting a single candle in the darkness perhaps...
 
Not for my four. We homeschool, and my oldest 3 most certainly diagram sentences and learn grammar. It is a huge portion of our curriculum. I also teach them cursive. There are a couple of great handwriting curriculum out there for those who would like to instruct their child at home or after school. Because my older children started off in public school, I also know that our local school does not teach geography, Roman numerals, or how to write an outline. They had never heard of explorers like Magellan, Ponce de Leon, or LaSalle. My elementary aged children, who were making stellar grades and scored above average on all standardized testing, had no idea what photosynthesis is. In our area, all the children are being taught is math and reading, because that is all they are tested on for funding.

That is why they are now at home, learning the things they should be learning. I had no idea that they were not learning these things until I brought them home. I assumed they were learning the same things I had learned as a child, and I was wrong.

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Not sure how true everything is but analog clocks maybe a thing of the past, in it's place digital clocks.

I'm not too certain everyone needs a smart phone. Smart phones require data services which can be costly for some people. They sell data by the gigabyte now.

I've also read (maybe rumor) some schools are doing away with cursive writing. I don't even think many schools have time to teach the basics anymore, like how to balance a check book.

BTW: I never paid attention in grammar classes. :floorlaugh:
 
I've also read (maybe rumor) some schools are doing away with cursive writing.

No, it isn't just a rumor, at least in my part of the world. The schools here don't teach cursive writing anymore.
 
That's what they said about cursive writing - that only printing was needed because of computers. Now we have an entire generation that cannot read cursive writing.

Smart phone don't know spelling and grammar, they autocorrect.
 
Cursive is not taught here, either. I will teach it to my daughter. I love handwriting; in fact, I wrote my Master's thesis by hand and then typed it out. I wish I could have done the same with my doctoral dissertation.

I have no comment on the arguments put forth in the article. I don't think young 'ppl today r dum becuz of txting' but I think that de-emphasizing the arts and humanities is not helpful for individuals or for humanity.
 
I totally agree that technology should take over and be used for kids who have learning disabilities so they can succeed. BUT, they all still need to know how to spell in order to advance reading. Those who can't read well after many efforts should be allowed oral tests though.
 
Eye dune now abut tat...ewe gut too bee dam cloze four the spellchecker two due a proper job.
 
When I was in college, students tried getting rid of math as a requirement for a degree since everybody was using programmable calculators (showing my age, people didn't use PCs back then). The reason given for keeping it there was simple; sometimes batteries die and electricity goes out. I'm sure many will say the same thing about spelling and grammar. My question about that is - what would you be doing that would require knowing any of them during a blackout?

That said, I thought they had already stopped teaching those things. I sure don't see many people who use probably grammar, usage and spelling these days. MOO
 
At least some knowledge of spelling is needed to be able to use spellcheckers and auto correct. How will they know whether auto correct or spellcheck offered them the right word if they don't know how to spell anything?
 
I need to see the original article before I can conclude that he said exactly this or it was taken out of context (I've seen so many articles where someone said something and the media ran rampant by taking it out of context trying to cause a sensation for example: George Church's comments to a German newspaper about theoretically cloning Neanderthal DNA to create a baby turned into him saying he wanted and could clone a Neanderthal baby...)

This guy has a wiki page: Sugata Mitra - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
I find this upsetting. Will future generations never use a handheld dictionary? A pencil, paper or pen?
 
This isn't a new trend. When I complained to college students about how hard it was to make sense of the papers because of their errors with to/two/too and its/it's and they're/their, they insisted they had never been taught those things.

I devoted a 3-hour lecture to grammar, thinking I would shame the students and thereby punish them. Instead, they loved the class and I was asked to repeat it every year.

That was at least 15 YEARS AGO and all of my students had A averages and had taken loads of AP classes!

***

Spelling is one thing, but grammar structures language so that it has clarity. If students don't learn grammar, how will they THINK clearly?
 
I find this upsetting. Will future generations never use a handheld dictionary? A pencil, paper or pen?

I'm no teenager and I can barely use a pencil or pen NOW!
 
I'm no teenager and I can barely use a pencil or pen NOW!

Lol, I love my laptop and my iPad but I still try to write cards and letters by hand. :blushing:
 
While I do allow mine to use the computer and their ipads as resources, I also require them to use other reference books, and they are learning to use an atlas, dictionary, encyclopedia, thesaurus, and others.

I just got in the last of our curriculum order, and I think they are just as excited as I am about the upcoming year. Kids are truly little sponges, and eager to learn and discover new things!


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