Another Protest! This time against.... ?spelling bees?

It seems there is a protest for anything these days.
In Washington, DC outside the Annual National Spelling Bee, people were protesting.
These people feel that it is too hard to spell words like "fruit", instead wanting it spelled "froot".

Spelling protest

What is apparent to me, in my opinion, is a wish to continue the "dumbing down" of America. Instead of learning to spell correctly, they just wish to spell how they think it sounds. That phonetic spelling should be good "enuf".

Words the way they are now (and have been) reveal, through their spelling, their roots and consequently often their meanings.
Etymology simply though the spelling if you like.

I feel that in the end of this odd idea, meanings of words would be obscured, their history untraceable, their fuller inference lost.

This seems ridiculous to me, but what does ATS think?


[edit on 3/6/2010 by Chamberf=6]

reply to post by Chamberf=6


I think there are more important things to be worried about.

I don't care how anyone spells a word - I'm not a teacher.

But if you're going to school and you want to get a good grade, I suggest you write down what they tell you, regardless of how much you agree with it.

That's what smart people have to do these days to sell their souls to colleges and universities just to get a piece of paper saying they know what they already knew or know better so that they can make money and live waste their lives away texting on their brand new iPhones to their favorite guy/girl friends :

"yo dood i am sooo drunkt"
"i no me 2 so how is werk"
"bad i half 2 spell evrething gud 2 git payd"
"r u sher cuz i dont"
"ya i ges mai stoo dents r bord 2"
"werd"

I totalee agree with tha protestors. Enuf is enuf, the wey Uhmerikans spell is stoopid. Y shood Inglesh b so difcult fer peepol?

Wow, the movie Idiocracy is coming to fruition much faster than I anticipated

reply to post by cfh84


Dude, pay attention.

It's "frooishun".

I think that the fact that there are people who don't think learning to spell properly, thus communicating intelligently, proves that America is being dumbed down. I don't think it is a conspiracy - it's an unfortunate evolution. I blame a lack of reading (books, magazines, newspapers) and the internet for much of the state we are in. When you read, you see proper spelling, grammar, and sentence structure. Those who don't understand these basics skills then turn to the internet and read from sites like ATS with posts which lack in all of these areas, most likely reinforcing the readers' bad habits to begin with.

No one is perfect, everyone makes spelling mistakes from time to time, but why not strive for improvement. Why not celebrate a child who has taken the time to study and learn how to spell difficult words for a Spelling Bee?

Stupid people irritate me to no end. My spelling might not always be right, I might not have the greatest largest vocabulary, but I try to do what I can to make it better.

Idiot people like this deserve some form of punishment. Not by law but from the normal people that at least think learning is of some importance. Maybe a few of the spelling bee contestants should drop a few kicks to the faces of these protesters. There is something seriously wrong with morons today. This is not a major story but the stupidity of the people it is about just blows my mind and irritates me to no end. I am sure most of these people are jobless, and living off of the tax payers, sitting at home (one nicer than my own) playing game boxes all day long while under the influence of something other than a sober mind.

Geez some people are morons. I agree though they are “dumbing down” my fellow Americans, sad just sad.

Raist

This is unbelievable! Of all the terrible things going on in the world that deserve to be protested; these idiots pick the spelling bee? Proper spelling is one of my pet peeves, its painful to read poor spelling and grammar. The first few posts were like pulling teeth! On a side note I was the NC spelling bee champion when I was in the 5th grade

Who wants to bet the winner will end up being a home-schooler?

Originally posted by cfh84
I totalee agree with tha protestors. Enuf is enuf, the wey Uhmerikans spell is stoopid. Y shood Inglesh b so difcult fer peepol?

Wow, the movie Idiocracy is coming to fruition much faster than I anticipated

The movie CFH referenced here is a good example of what this is doing. If any one would like to see the whole movie, hear is the link.

reply to post by Carseller4


LOL You know as sad as it is, you might be right. Our schools are not known for their excellence.

reply to post by Chamberf=6


You hit it on the head by labeling it just as it is, the apparent intentional attempt to dumb down the American public. The more ignorant the public, the easier to implement whatever you want.

It goes further than just spelling bees though. We see it all other the praise of mediocrity and the hatred of excellence. The lack of proper grading in public schools for fear of damaging a child’s psyche, no more contact sports on the playground, lack of ‘jungle gym’ type of equipment on playgrounds, lack of actual instruction within public schools pertaining to what a person needs to succeed on their own, rather than the government as their crutch and so on and so on.

What we see is either the highly questionable unintentional consequences of a public school system ran by the government, or a highly coordinated conspiracy to slowly control the population via the public school systems by not actually teaching anyone anything except that they deserve everything while not having to excel at anything.

reply to post by ownbestenemy


Very nicely put.

I agree, that's all I have to say.

On another note, I have from time to time been graced with the pleasure of pouring over job applications and resumes from high school students. Granted, this was back in the late ‘90s, it still is pertinent today in what I witnessed.

The majority of applications and resumes were riddled with spelling errors and improper grammar. I took the time to call in some of them to discuss their applications and resumes. My observations were as following. Those that did not take the time to make sure their applications were absent of spelling errors invariably came to the interview unprepared and dressed inappropriately. It was obvious that their lack of care in their writing skills was carried over in their self appearance.

I explained to them that they were not chosen because of their lack of care in everything they have presented; their resume, application and self. Nearly all of them were visibly irritated and upset that I was basing my decision on such criteria. They truly held the belief that spelling and grammar were by no means indication of their ability to perform a job.

After some expressed such a view to me, I continued to explain that those that are successful in life are those that strive for perfection. While none will ever achieve such a lofty goal, the pursuit will continue to open an infinite amount of doors in their lives. I also explained that if they were so lackadaisical in presenting themselves in such a way, how I could never trust them to perform simple tasks correctly.

Those that protest spelling bees are setting up their own kids and future generations for failure. Those that succeed command their language and the ability to communicate properly and clearly is always paramount.

How do these idiots manage to breeth?

That quote from the retired principal about how the language makes it impossible for 40% of people to read and write makes me angry. She doesn't think government run education has anything to do with it? She instead blames a centuries old language that people had no problem learning until compulsory education was introduced.

She's right, we shouldn't be teaching good spelling, we should be teaching how to put two and two together.

And yankees wonder where the stereotypes comes from

Now if they were clutching bibles and packing a side arm that would really pull the whole image together

reply to post by ZombieOctopus


How would that pull the image together? There is a difference in the highly negative stereotype you are alluding to and the protest of spelling bees.

The way one speaks may be a different dialect and pronunciation of a word, but is still spelling correctly for the most part in regards to the glorious stereotype you have passively presented.

I am glad I did a Search before posting this very same thread! I'm glad others saw the absurdidity of it as welll.

It reminded me of the book,"Nineteen Eighty-Four",and how they eliminated any words also that would give rise to any ideas that did not go along with the party-line.

Thinking about how everyone text-messages today in abbreviated words seems geared to just this kind of abbreviated thinking as well. Just say whatever is easiest and most widely understood,in the simplest terms.

For some reason,I decided to back this up with a link!

Newspeak is the official language of Oceania, scheduled for official adoption around 2050, and designed to make the ideological premises of Ingsoc (Newspeak for English Socialism, the Party’s official political alignment) the only expressible doctrine. Newspeak is engineered to remove even the possibility of rebellious thoughts—the words by which such thoughts might be articulated have been eliminated from the language. Newspeak contains no negative terms. For example, the only way to express the meaning of “bad” is through the word “ungood.” Something extremely bad is called “doubleplus ungood.”

Newspeak’s grammar is arranged so that any word can serve as any part of speech, and there are three different groups of vocabulary words. The A vocabulary contains everyday words and phrases, as Orwell says, “for such things as eating, drinking, working” and so on. In comparison with modern English, these words are fewer in number but more rigid in meaning. Newspeak leaves no room for nuance, or for degrees of meaning. The B vocabulary of Newspeak contains all words with political or ideological significance, specially tailored to engender blind acceptance of the Party’s doctrines. For example, “goodthink” means roughly the same thing as “orthodoxy.” The B vocabulary consists entirely of compound words and often compresses words into smaller forms to achieve conceptual simplicity: the English phrase “Thought Police,” for instance, is compressed into “thinkpol”; “the Ministry of Love” becomes “miniluv.” The C vocabulary encompasses words that relate specifically to science and to technical fields and disciplines. It is designed to ensure that technical knowledge remains segmented among many fields, so that no one individual can gain access to too much knowledge. In fact, there is no word for “science”; as Orwell writes, “Ingsoc” covers any meaning that such a concept could possibly have.

The particularities of Newspeak make it impossible to translate most older English (oldspeak) texts into the language; the introduction of the Declaration of Independence, for instance, can be translated only into a single word: crimethink.

www.sparknotes.com...

I think that last paragraph is the most revealing!

Seee.. right there!

Americans, don't get mad at us for telling it how it is(I hear americans on ATS say the same thing), incredibly stupid things happen in the US everyday.. yes, of course we realise not everyone is stupid, don't be stupid, that's a given. BUT, I can't see this happening anywhere else in the western world.. it's ridiculous.

I don't get overly mad at constantly hearing how it's a "proven fact" that the US is the only truly free country in the world. I get sick of hearing blatant propaganda(which I know is false since I live in a country where my freaking life is evidence of that fact) proclaiming the USA to be the greatest nation on earth.
It's really just obnoxious and by constantly telling the world you're the best you're actually indirectly insulting countries that know they outrank the US in various functions, a small view of this outlandish pinko fantasy:

en.wikipedia.org...

en.wikipedia.org...

en.wikipedia.org...

en.wikipedia.org...

en.wikipedia.org...

Kind of off-topic but I just felt I had to get it out of my system.
I think I'll have to write up a giant post in one of these "does the world hate America?" threads, but then I'll include all the good things too, it's about 50/50.
Like Dave Chappelle said about white people:

"I study white people, you don't know that
I'm writing a paper on you..not even for school ni**a!
Just to do it, I'm doing this independent research, I'm spending my money, that's why I'm working so hard."

Welcome to Idiocracy(see the movie it's priceless).

Originally posted by Nosred
How do these idiots manage to breeth?

The irony here is truly overwhelming.

I'm sure the above will go over your head so I'll just explain. You and many others in this thread have made numerous spelling mistakes. Stop the dumbing down of America? How about a more realistic goal: stop the dumbing down of ATS.

reply to post by pjslug


The difference from these protesters and those ATS member on this thread is that the ATS members on this thread care to increase their intelligence. None of us are claiming to have perfect spelling, grammar, or even the greatest of vocabularies. But I think the fact that we are outraged that some would protest a spelling bee because the words are too hard shows we care and hope we can learn.

Are there errors in the thread? Yes there are.
Could those errors be pointed out in such a way that the poster might learn? Yes, they could.
So instead of ridiculing those who at least care about education, why not try to help them better their own.



Raist