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Kids Today

Tunn11 said:
Well writing was invented some 4000 years ago but it only really became useful when reading was invented a while later. :)
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Actually kinda true!
 
Mythopoeika said:
And they don't know how to do cursive writing.
Pah!
Barbarians.
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Cursive is coming back to schools here. Stupid idea to not teach it. I believe that it would have led to literacy problems simply because anyone doing research that involved handwritten documents wouldn't be able to read cursive.
 
It took me ages to understand that I had been taught 'cursive'.
To me, from age 4 to 10, I was taught handwriting. With 'dip' ink pens and everything.

I suspect that it's all in 'the sell'.
I don't see much complaint from parents to teach how to read and write, but many (in the recent generations) might feel wary of their children being taught 'whatever bloody cursive is!'
 
Stormkhan said:
It took me ages to understand that I had been taught 'cursive'.
To me, from age 4 to 10, I was taught handwriting. With 'dip' ink pens and everything.

I suspect that it's all in 'the sell'.
I don't see much complaint from parents to teach how to read and write, but many (in the recent generations) might feel wary of their children being taught 'whatever bloody cursive is!'
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My understanding of why it was stopped was because "everyone uses texting (and keyboarding) as communication" so why would they write?

I was curious as to how anyone would sign legal documents, though? With "X"?
 
Then it's not the children not using handwriting but the educational system teaching them?
Teaching children the hazards of computer use and it's applications is - to me - practical.
They have to still learn English, and words, and grammar but using the technology they will be immersed in when they leave school.
I get it, I really do - the 'lost art' of handwriting etc. Calligraphy and so on.
But I'd rather them be taught how to interact with the world they will encounter rather than an archaic system that, while artistic and ultimately practical that might come in useful.
Don't get me wrong - I would love kids to be able to use the right end of a biro to make a note and the resultant scrawl to be readable. But this is starting to sound like "it all went to the bow-wows when the fountain pen was invented! At least with dip-pens you were FORCED to slow down and punctuate properly!"

;)
 
I'm left handed, so any crappy pen that left too much ink on the page would smear and I'd have ink on my pinkie.:doh:

I see nothing wrong with learning cursive. I'm just as illegible as the next guy. I know of people several decades younger than I who were teaching their kids cursive on their own.

My understanding of some things people do such as having memory work, which is no longer done, does help with brain development.

And I can see wars starting due to f'n autocorrect. The bane of my texting experience.
 
11 year old boy found driving BMW with cloned plates towing stolen caravan

North Yorkshire Police arrested the boy on suspicion of theft, burglary and motoring offences including dangerous driving.

The force said that 45 minutes after the caravan was reported stolen "we stopped the vehicle on the M1 after it left the A1 at Hook Moor Interchange near Garforth”.

Police said a selection of vehicle registration plates was found when they searched the vehicle.
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Stormkhan said:
Teaching children the hazards of computer use and it's applications is - to me - practical.
They have to still learn English, and words, and grammar but using the technology they will be immersed in when they leave school.
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I can report first-hand on a notable chunk of a generation and a half (or so) who have replaced written pages with screens and grown up reading 'media' from tablets and phones (mostly apps and games) far, far more often that stories from pages.

The short version: reading ages are down, and where the more mechanical skills of recognising patterns and generating the correct sounds are preserved, comprehension is still worse. One thing is that more of them seem to take things literally unless expressly told they are not literal. A second is that a lot more of them have a weak grasp of 'voice' and 'tone', because so much of what they consume is in discreet chunks or simply voiceless (bang-bang-bang). Of course, there are thousands of great games out there with narrative depth and character development, but they're not the majority of what is being played.

I teach English to students from about aged seven until undergraduate and have seen almost twenty years of change in this area. While this is semi-anecdotal, I have a stack of test papers and interview assessment sheets that tell the same story.

My placement interviews are pretty rigorous (not simply 'hard', they test everything I want to know). It used to be an exception for a parent to tell me their child 'does not read books' in either English or Korean (both is great, either is fine), but while those children are still a minority, they're far more common that in the past.

I now have to teach things that I always took for granted.
 
Yithian said:
I can report first-hand on a notable chunk of a generation and a half (or so) who have replaced written pages with screens and grown up reading 'media' from tablets and phones (mostly apps and games) far, far more often that stories from pages.

The short version: reading ages are down, and where the more mechanical skills of recognising patterns and generating the correct sounds are preserved, comprehension is still worse. One thing is that more of them seem to take things literally unless expressly told they are not literal. A second is that a lot more of them have a weak grasp of 'voice' and 'tone', because so much of what they consume is in discreet chunks or simply voiceless (bang-bang-bang). Of course, there are thousands of great games out there with narrative depth and character development, but they're not the majority of what is being played.

I teach English to students from about aged seven until undergraduate and have seen almost twenty years of change in this area. While this is semi-anecdotal, I have a stack of test papers and interview assessment sheets that tell the same story.

My placement interviews are pretty rigorous (not simply 'hard', they test everything I want to know). It used to be an exception for a parent to tell me their child 'does not read books' in either English or Korean (both is great, either is fine), but while those children are still a minority, they're far more common that in the past.

I now have to teach things that I always took for granted.
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Have you noticed a difference in their understanding of intonation/cadence/stress etc as well?
 
Yithian said:
I'm afraid that I meant they only comfortably read books intended for a lower age than they actually are: nine-year-olds with reading abilities of seven-year-olds etc.
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I do wonder if this may be a sign that parents aren't spending time reading books with their kids.
You are, which is a good thing.
 
Mythopoeika said:
I do wonder if this may be a sign that parents aren't spending time reading books with their kids.
You are, which is a good thing.
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Those evenings of hurrying home from work and reading to/with my daughter at bedtime are some of the happiest I have had.

I believe parents who tell me they don't have enough time to supervise homework and read with their children, but that's a sign that your family's schedule and/or work-life balance is faulty, not a get-out-of-jail-free card.
 
Floyd1 said:
Have you noticed a difference in their understanding of intonation/cadence/stress etc as well?
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That's harder to say, because although I teach some billingual children who have grown up speaking English as natives, the majority are non-native speakers who have learnt/acquired English at English-speaking pre-schools, so those elements you mention could be mere 'learners errors'.
 
Yithian said:
Those evenings of hurrying home from work and reading to/with my daughter at bedtime are some of the happiest I have.

I believe parents who tell me they don't have enough time to supervise homework and read with their children, but that's a sign that your family's schedule and/or work-life balance is faulty, not a get-out-of-jail-free card.
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People in Korea and Japan definitely do have a very long working day, which can affect all aspects of their lives (including childcare).
In the case of Japan, I think if the government enforced shorter working hours, they wouldn't have the demographic time-bomb of low birth rates and an ageing population.
 
Mythopoeika said:
People in Korea and Japan definitely do have a very long working day, which can affect all aspects of their lives (including childcare).
In the case of Japan, I think if the government enforced shorter working hours, they wouldn't have the demographic time-bomb of low birth rates and an ageing population.
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This is happening all over the developed world. I learned about it during research for a Health Studies degree.

The only people having families big enough to replace themselves (the much-quoted '2.4 children') in developed countries are immigrants. Their children tend to grow up and conform to the current family patterns of their parents' adopted country.

In all countries where girls are educated and able to work, the average age for marriage and childbearing is delayed and there is a tendency for couples to have fewer or even no children.
 
Yithian said:
Those evenings of hurrying home from work and reading to/with my daughter at bedtime are some of the happiest I have had.

I believe parents who tell me they don't have enough time to supervise homework and read with their children, but that's a sign that your family's schedule and/or work-life balance is faulty, not a get-out-of-jail-free card.
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I taught myself to read when I was three-ish.
My parents were amused/perplexed when I used to read so many books. I'd joyfully walk a mile to the nearest library (always on a Saturday) to get three books that I'd finish in that week.
It would never even cross their mind to actually talk about books, reading or even read books to/with me. It was another something 'weird' about me. They weren't against education or learning - they just saw me as a 'cuckoo'.
Y'know the old trope about kids wondering or fantasising about being adopted? Well, I knew and had evidence to the contrary but the actual psychological evidence pointed to me being utterly unconnected with the rest of my family.
Any wonder why, at age 60, that I have issues?
 
My youngest and her husband have always read to their now 6 year old since he was a baby but he's still a bit behind his age group in reading.
They worry it's because he loves his screen time too much.
 
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From a expectant/recent mother (I forget which) in the States.

She has shown posts that suggest these are genuine names given to babies (born and unborn) in her virtual maternity group.

I can't find single one I would entertain for a moment.
 
Yithian said:
View attachment 74922

From a expectant/recent mother (I forget which) in the States.

She has shown posts that suggest these are genuine names given to babies (born and unborn) in her virtual maternity group.

I can't find single one I would entertain for a moment.
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We've got a Motley Crue fan in there.
 
Swifty said:
Raddix Zephyr sounds like an industrial cleaning powder. Wolfgang is pretty cool with the Amadeus connection plus you'd get the nickname Wolfy.
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The few people I know who were given 'weird and wonderful names' got heartily sick of them and the constant jokes and references they heard even before the advent of adolescence.

Wolfgang (which I am not sold on—it would be constantly mispronounced) is only the third of four given names:

You get the whole package: Sigurd Felix Wolfgang Atreides [+Surname].

Norse+Latin+German+Greek??

This is the kind of person who mixes all the cereals and toppings at the hotel breakfast buffet and then pours honey and maple syrup on top.
 
Yithian said:
The few people I know who were given 'weird and wonderful names' got heartily sick of them and the constant jokes and references they heard even before the advent of adolescence.

Wolfgang (which I am not sold on—it would be constantly mispronounced) is only the third of four given names:

You get the whole package: Sigurd Felix Wolfgang Atreides [+Surname].

Norse+Latin+German+Greek??

This is the kind of person who mixes all the cereals and toppings at the hotel breakfast buffet and then pours honey and maple syrup on top.
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Perhaps his Mum was into collecting men from different nationalities, a bit like one would with PANINI football stickers or Julie Walters with men in MAMMA MIA!. ?
 
Yithian said:
Those evenings of hurrying home from work and reading to/with my daughter at bedtime are some of the happiest I have had.

I believe parents who tell me they don't have enough time to supervise homework and read with their children, but that's a sign that your family's schedule and/or work-life balance is faulty, not a get-out-of-jail-free card.
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I've always had the policy of providing a book with each birthday/Christmas present to my nephews/nieces/godchildren - when they were very young there was a toy and an age appropriate book, as they got older they got fewer toys and more books. Now it's a gift card for the book of their choice and a book that is either science/history/true crime or interesting cookbook.
 
Many parents give names that sound great and are unique. I mean 'Raddix' sounds cool - but it's only really cool because it's one extra 'd' away from the Latin for 'Claw'.
Each to their own, an' all that, but what irritates me is trying to be 'original' but without the necessary imagination. Like odd spelling common names - the child will go through life having to correct people, struggle to fill forms etc.
Yeah, I know there's always been alternate spellings but, well, really there's no excuse.
Alan, Allen, Alleyn ... but I expect the existance of Aylln, Aln, Ahlen etc. If the 'old' spelling of a name is too boring for you, pick another one! :)
 
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