Tuesday, November 18, 2008

In Case of Doubt, Read This

Next time you're full of doubt over whether you've really made the right choice in homeschooling your kids, click over to this article.

It features examples of sentences written by people attending college. College.

Examples:

“The children of lesbian couples receive as much neutering as those of other couples."

“Jogging on a woman’s ovaries can be dangerous to her health.”

“Benjamin Franklin discovered America while fling a kite.”

Remember, that's our benchmark. Since most of us have kids that could write better sentences at 8, we're doing fine.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know "weather" to laugh or cry after reading that article.

yofed said...

Woah! That was painful to read! My eyes are trying to run away and my brain wants to press on the self-destruct button, but there is none...

Luke Holzmann said...

I agree with the comment that many of the errors are malapropisms. And while it is sad to see people confuse their words there in college, I know it happens to me as well.

In fact, recently I wrote a post and didn't realize I had written about "bother-in-laws." Thankfully, someone found it funny and brought it to my attention.

And I even proofread.

Multiple times.

Even so, homeschooling does allow for much gooder righters. [smile]

~Luke

Annette Laing said...

I just resigned after 12 years of college teaching to have more time to write my books, and also to homeschool my son. Every college professor who assigns writing (and there are many classes where no writing is required, disturbingly) can cite similar examples. It's not the spelling and grammar that bother me, it's the lack of coherent thought. I still remember the kid who, writing of the creation of the modern state of Israel, informed me that this took place after Moses parted the Red Sea. Funny, yet terrifying. All the focus on the mechanics of language and math, as well as all the testing, has left us with kids who can't think, and have to incentive to learn how.

Annette Laing said...

Yes, well, obviously I can't care too much about spelling and typos, or I would have written "have *no* incentive" to learn how. Ahem.
Thank God I didn't rant on about proofreading, eh? :-)

Dawn said...

:D Typos and slip-ups are one thing, especially in the blogging world.

But I'm with you on the coherent thought point. That isn't just about writing, it's what you mentioned plus a lack of general knowledge plus a lack of caring...Probably could be summed up as a lack of intellectual curiousity period.

Dawn said...

Oh! And welcome to the homeschooling world Annette! I know you'll enjoy it. :D

molytail said...

“The children of lesbian couples receive as much neutering as those of other couples."

*snort* LMAO ....I'm never gonna think of "nurturing" without thinking of that sentence now!

Activities Coordinator said...

“The children of lesbian couples receive as much neutering as those of other couples."

Well, I suppose if the children of lesbian couples are not commonly neutered, this is a true statement. :)

I blogged about this topic once. (Poor writing and homeschooling - not neutering lesbian parents!) A college prof. acquaintance commented to me about how she enjoyed the homeschooled students she taught because they were able to write in complete sentences, as well as carry on intelligent conversations.