[BITList] Ee by gum and education

[HUGH]

Malcolm,

By gum, it's the education that does it, but not always. There's a discussion in the Letters page of the (Glasgow) Herald regarding what many see as a serious problem with present day education, ie, people turn up at university unable to spell and/or write properly, dyslexics excepted.  Grammar and spelling were bad words in education for far too long - too much emphasis on "free expression" - the result is a couple or three generations who have a lot of catching up to do.  The 40s, 50s and 60s were the bad old days in which children learned by rote - "rote" is a nasty word, typical of the things that held children back from "appreciating nature", or "finding themselves", and other instances of psychobabble.

I joined in the other day, in response to a letter from some professor or other.  I append the letter I submitted - the version printed was 99.9% what I wrote - a couple of words omitted editorially.

Hugh.
------------------------------

Monday, 5th December, 2011.

 

63 Pentland Avenue

Port Glasgow

PA14 6LF

 

Dear Sir,

 

Jim Miller (today's Herald) reckons it is impossible to compare general levels of literacy in, say, the 1950s and the 1990s.  Statistically speaking, that might be so, but it is not hard to produce evidence that there was a high standard of literacy in the 40s/50s among "ordinary" people.

 

My late father attended Chapelton Primary School here in Port Glasgow - I'd say from 1913 to 1920.  He worked as a labourer in shipyards - his father was a riveter in shipyards, as had been his grandfather.  I have plenty of examples of Dad's writing, and a good many of his books. His writings are grammatically perfect, immaculately punctuated, in a clear hand of write.  His books were read by his family, so we were brought up on a diet of political essays, history and European novels. As to the last mentioned, though I hadn't at that point read Ibsen's Ghosts, I had no hesitation in offering it to the teacher as an example of a ghost story.  I got a strange look.

 

I followed Dad to Chapelton, 1938 to 1945.  I don't think I was able to read before I started, for I recall asking uncle Alex what it said on a cigarette advert outside a shop, and being told I'd be able to read it for myself once I started school.  I remember what the words looked like.

 

We learned by rote, that much despised method, and we learned fast.  Being able to read and spell was taken for granted - even the dumbest of us could read and spell pretty well.

 

Learning was competitive. We had a spelling book that covered words from the easy (at the front), to the hard (at the back), and we got half a dozen or so to learn every day.  Coming top in the daily test got one first pick of the books in the library at the back of the classroom.  The ability to spell the long words at the back of the book got one prestige in the playground.

 

In the preparatory class for high school, aged 10 to 11, we were required to write an essay (we called it a composition) a week.  And we got a general knowledge quiz once a week, teams of four, questions set by Mr Wallace, the teacher.  The teams were picked by individuals in the class, so getting picked first mattered.

 

All very unfashionable, I daresay, but I'm glad I got my early education where and when I did.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Hugh VS McIntyre.
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