Antone's Nightclub
Shocked at Lack of Literacy
RECEIVED Sat., Feb. 23, 2008
To the editor,
I am a 19-year-old English major attending Austin Community College. Every day I find myself more shocked and disturbed by the lack of literacy among high school graduates and college students, and I believe that much of the problem comes from how English is taught in high school.
My first-year high school English teacher, D’Anne Farmer, told our class that due to the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills testing material, she was forced to teach a curriculum that included writing and reading but not grammar. In an attempt to offset the lack of essential grammar taught by the curriculum, she kept our class working from bell to bell, every day of the school year, without a single “free day” or 10-minute break, so that she could cram a mere five to 10 minutes of basic grammar rules into our class time each day.
Even despite the efforts of Farmer and other teachers like her, I graduated in May 2006 alongside a large number of students who had such poor grammar skills that they were still writing run-on sentences and using apostrophes when they wanted to make words plural.
I strongly feel that our education system needs to stop worrying about standardized tests and start working to make sure our youth can have a firm grasp on the basic rules of our language before they have to start writing 10-page research papers once they get into college.
I am a 19-year-old English major attending Austin Community College. Every day I find myself more shocked and disturbed by the lack of literacy among high school graduates and college students, and I believe that much of the problem comes from how English is taught in high school.
My first-year high school English teacher, D’Anne Farmer, told our class that due to the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills testing material, she was forced to teach a curriculum that included writing and reading but not grammar. In an attempt to offset the lack of essential grammar taught by the curriculum, she kept our class working from bell to bell, every day of the school year, without a single “free day” or 10-minute break, so that she could cram a mere five to 10 minutes of basic grammar rules into our class time each day.
Even despite the efforts of Farmer and other teachers like her, I graduated in May 2006 alongside a large number of students who had such poor grammar skills that they were still writing run-on sentences and using apostrophes when they wanted to make words plural.
I strongly feel that our education system needs to stop worrying about standardized tests and start working to make sure our youth can have a firm grasp on the basic rules of our language before they have to start writing 10-page research papers once they get into college.
Matt Presley