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The best (and most entertaining) essay/book I've read on this topic is Less than Words Can Say ... it makes a compelling argument for clear, direct and precise language usage. I wholly recommend it (it's free online). Most importantly, as some of the responders to your post have failed to realise, there is a very big difference between "dumbing down" your language use, and making it clearer. Frivolous excess 'business' or bureaucratic verbiage usually *is* actually dumbing down the language in a different way as it makes meaning more opaque, even while giving the superficial appearance of intelligence and insight. Learning to recognize the difference is so critical our future actually depends on it.

OK, I don't normally feed the trolls, but you've struck on a topic that actually matters a great deal to me: Look, I'm not entirely in disagreement with you, there ARE valid and even pressing reasons to preach precision in language use, and even to make *certain* limited judgments of people based on their language use (on their diligence, not on their worth as a person - these are two different things). But classism, I'm afraid, is not one of those reasons; in fact, not only is it a terrible reason, it's harmful to the very values you are pretending to espouse. It is people who specifically purport a correlation between correct language use and elitism / supposed worth as a person, i.e. to display alleged status, who have caused the current massive cultural rise in the purposeful, nihilistic end-goal of poor language 'skillz, yo'.

To educate yourself on the REAL reasons 'language matters' (hint, none of which have anything to do with immature displays of classism), I wholly recommend Less than Words Can Say (available online), by Richard Mitchell.

Clearly your goal was simply to impress upon us all your supposed superiority *yawn*. Unfortunately for you, you just happened to do so incorrectly - you seriously need to educate yourself about the current state of English academia, the entire approach has changed 180 degrees since the 1800s (seriously, I work in this field); whether or not you agree doesn't matter. Honestly though, if you are actually sitting spending your free time trolling peoples' English on Slashdot (where many people aren't even mother-tongue speakers, or speak any of the thousands of dialects of English, many of which are considered far more standard than American English - after all, it's the English who speak English, and nobody else) to point out obscure semi-outdated English "rules" to prove how "educated" and superior you are, that is pathetic, and does indicate some serious underlying self-worth issues that you should get help for, because they are going to affect your quality of life later on.

Way I see it, if you want to prove to us you're not trailer trash, rather do so by actually saying intelligent, useful things - that will go much much further than throwing a few words about that you think all us poor plebians can't understand *boo hoo hoo*.

Having an excellent mastery of English doesn't make you a better person, being a better person makes you a better person. It's possible, as you seem to be trying hard to demonstrate, that you can speak perfect English but still be an asshole who doesn't make the world a better place and instead just pollutes it. Language use, class and value as a human are all independent; you can be a crappy person who speaks great English, a crappy person who speaks terrible English, a decent person who speaks terrible English, a decent person who speaks great English (*ahem*), and any of those combinations may or not arise from both trailer parks and leafy 'burbs with mansions.

Why should he?

Read this: Less than Words Can Say, and then come back and tell me if you still think precision in language usage simply does not matter.

Grammar doesn't just make your argument "sound more pleasing"; proper grammar is required to convey your argument, and in fact is your argument - without proper grammar usage (comprehension and production skills) you can really only convey general feelings and emotions about an issue, little more than disconnected slogans and sound bites (your non-sequitur at the end is an example.)

demand that your government fund education

I don't think throwing more money at the education problem is going to fix it - education is already pretty well-funded as it is. It is possible to create an excellent education system on far less than the current education budget. The problem is with the quality of education and the methods used and the approach. Read Richard Mitchell's Less than Words Can Say for an (entertaining and) insightful critique into this issue.

I recommend that anyone vaguely interested in this problem should read "less than words can say" (available online), by Richard Mitchell.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that.

For anyone interested in further reading on the topic, you might try the Underground Grammarian.

Re your sig: well, *I* like it, anyway. In fact, I've thought of making T-shirts. How does that strike you?

Re the actual topic: the sheer population of Asian countries may allow them to train more scientists and engineers than the U.S. while devoting a smaller share of their economy to science and technology.

I've always heard China was a nation that devotes most of its work force to growing food. After a long day in the rice paddies, (so the argument runs), nobody's going to feel like studying hard.

Now, that's the sort of thing my father and grandfather have said, with a smug attitude.

Can anyone who's actually been to China comment on this? (I haven't; neither have Dad nor Grandpa.)

take a look!
underground grammarian

That's not surprising news, since the public schools quickly picked up the insane ``Look-say'' method, which teaches that words are ideograms, rather than that words are collections of sounds. This left children who didn't get phonics instruction at home out in the cold, and may have kept some children from learning to read who would have learned to read if left to themselves. Furthermore, the children were entirely dependent on their teachers, since Look-say provides no tools for learning on your own.

You can find some practical information on phonics and Look-say on my web site.

The official statistics show that white school enrolment had essentially no affect on white literacy, while black literacy tracked black school enrolment fairly closely. That is, whites learned to read whether they went to school or not, while blacks learned to read at school, only. That may be because white parents were able to provide their children with phonics instruction at home, while black parents more often couldn't.

If you want a good history of the public school movement, I'd suggest starting with Gatto's book Undergound History of American Education and Richard Mitchel's Graves of Academe. Market Education: the Unknown History is another excellent resource, but unfortunately isn't available online.

That's not surprising news, since the public schools quickly picked up the insane ``Look-say'' method, which teaches that words are ideograms, rather than that words are collections of sounds. This left children who didn't get phonics instruction at home out in the cold, and may have kept some children from learning to read who would have learned to read if left to themselves. Furthermore, the children were entirely dependent on their teachers, since Look-say provides no tools for learning on your own.

You can find some practical information on phonics and Look-say on my web site.

The official statistics show that white school enrolment had essentially no affect on white literacy, while black literacy tracked black school enrolment fairly closely. That is, whites learned to read whether they went to school or not, while blacks learned to read at school, only. That may be because white parents were able to provide their children with phonics instruction at home, while black parents more often couldn't.

If you want a good history of the public school movement, I'd suggest starting with Gatto's book Undergound History of American Education and Richard Mitchel's Graves of Academe. Market Education: the Unknown History is another excellent resource, but unfortunately isn't available online.

I'm going to have to check out this Flickering Mind.

Given the sort of doco that usually crops up in what I laughingly think of as "real life", the prospect of having the most odious chunks of it modularized in order subsequently to pop up all over the landscape like seedy trailer parks is not something that spins the propeller on my beanie. Better to start with the advice of, say, Richard Mitchell and rid oneself of the plague of obfuscated bizspeak before allowing it to spawn. That done, go forth and conquer.

Your post is marked funny, but it's actually pretty sad. The new movies were written by a completely different author than the guy who wrote the original Star Wars. My guess is that the Earl of Oxford wrote Star Wars, and Lucas is just some hack.

There's definitely truth in this. The seniority system anywhere, whether in public schools or factory floors or Congress, should be abolished and replaced with some sort of meritocracy plan.

And they only had to work half the year every year! It's absurd. If any public school teachers ever did a day of REAL work, they'd die.

Half the year? What? Are you trolling for flames, or just misinformed? Summer vacation in the USA lasts about 3.5 months, add in spring+winter breaks to get about 4 months. That gives a work year of 8 months, 2/3 of a year. And many teachers put in time teaching summer school, as well as going beyond the 8-hour day with extracurricular activities and providing extra tutoring.

As for the "REAL work" comment, you've obviously never tried to teach. Dealing with 25-30 people under 18 who have varying intelligence levels, varying interest levels, and varying degrees of homicidal mania isn't exactly easy. There are plenty of bad teachers, as described here, but there are also plenty of dedicated professionals who want to help kids learn, and who typically invest plenty of their own time and money doing so. Don't tar all public schoolteachers with the same brush.