Ignorance is Bliss

“I could of been there…”

“Your really dumb…”

“I went over their to see…”

“Me and Frank went but it was to crowded…”

“Its to warm outside…”

These are all direct quotes from social media recently. It would appear that society has set itself an extremely low standard that it has consistently failed to achieve.

What is it, do you think, that is the reason for this abysmally poor standard of English? Can it be true that the same level of mathematics also exists? Certainly it would seem that geography and history have devolved into some sort of ‘also ran’ in the educational stakes.

It is too easy to point fingers at the teachers and lay blame for this on their shoulders. The responsibility rests with the parents but they, equally, are very likely to be poorly educated.

It is just as easy to suppose that the media are responsible. Advertising people, as I have mentioned in a previous ‘Blog’, have much to answer for in their constant search for even greater magnitudes of praise for whatever product they are currently pushing.

Looking at some of the written comments on the television news tells us that there is much to be desired in their grammatical coverage and newspapers… well… least said, soonest mended.

Perhaps I am being too harsh on these people as culprits.

Is there a possibility that the rapid gratification obtained from computer games is a factor? Why bother going through the tedious process of learning when switching on an Android or tablet can stimulate the endorphins more easily and more prolifically.

It is common, now, to see small children barely old enough to be reclassified from ‘baby’ or ‘infant’ gazing blank-eyed at the screen of an electronic dummy.

Very small children are glued endlessly to films like ‘Frozen’ or ‘Minions’.

There is no learning in this. There is nothing to be accomplished or gained.

They are being fed pap to keep them quiet so that Mummy and Daddy do not have to go through the nausea of having to cope.

Understand that the corporations and the advertising people know all about this.

‘Happy Meals’ makes sure that your small person is attracted to a specific ‘food’ centre by virtue of a ‘free’ toy. The people that run this idea are far from stupid. They know very well that the tastes that you develop before the age of seven years will stay with you for life.

Eat a ‘Happy Meal’ now and in years to come you will return again and again for whatever is on offer backed up with illustrations of the most succulent kind that rarely, if ever, match the product in hand.

Do you see the connection? Before the age of seven the child will be formed into an electronic World where they will wish to remain forever.

The attention span of most young adults is down to less than thirty seconds—barely more than a Goldfish. It is for this reason that American (particularly) comedy shows have to have a joke every twenty seconds, or so, or the viewer will switch off or change channels out of boredom.

What chance the teacher now? How will the educator compete with that?

We are told that we have to ‘upgrade’ our teaching methods to keep pace with modern trends but it is a losing battle. Teachers, Instructors, Lecturers are increasingly faced with a sea of glazed eyes; pupils, students who are bored before they even set foot in the training room or lecture hall.

Primary, secondary, tertiary education is unable to compete with ‘Netflix’, et al.

The result is that someone posted on my timeline (‘Facebook’) a long comment that had no upper case letters and zero punctuation. When I asked for a translation and a few clues in the form of commas and full stops I was rewarded with the scathing remark that ‘…punctuation is for idiots…’

Let’s go eat Grandad!

The norm has sadly decayed into an abyss of ignorance from which we may never recover.

We shall never return to the Moon or go to Mars because who will bother to learn the maths needed?

Perhaps we shall, ultimately, return to an ape-like state.