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Kids Improve Writing Online
aelfric35 writes "Ben Franklin advised his son not to allow schooling to interfere with his education. Even though many have disparaged the effects of IM on schoolchildrens' prose, some kids are actually becoming better writers by participating in online communities. Henry Jenkins writes in MIT's Technology Review about how some kids are gaining writing and editorial experience far beyond what their schools can offer by participating in Harry Potter fan fiction forums (sorry about the alliteration)."
On a more serious note, if you want some highly interesting reads on how "schooling interferes with your education," read some stuff by John Taylor Gatto. It's scary 'cos it's true.
Dlugar
Computer Go: Writing Software to Play the Ancient Game of Go
I can't agree more with what you said. I dabbled in Spanish and German in high school. Both classes made me appreciate the intricacies and nuances of language. I had a better appreciation for not only other languages, but my own as well.
And I am most definitely a part of that backlash. When I see "loose" being used in place of "lose", my blood starts boiling.
Of course, none of this excuses my notoriously poor typing skills. Typo-s aplenty!
No offense but the writing you've demonstrated in your comment needs significant improvements. I understand that you may not have proofread it but here are some pointers:
s/and senior/and a senior editor/ or s/and senior/and the senior/
s/writing lots/writing a lot/
s/would of ever/would have ever/
s/15,000/13,000/ s/15000/13,000/
s/commentary's/commentaries/
s/english/English/
s/columbia/Columbia/
s/tandom/tandem/
s/kids/kid's/
s/now only/now not only/
s/infinitly/infinitely/
s/thise/these/
s/opportinities/opportunities/
Try joining your school newspaper. Simply writing for a website doesn't get you nearly the same amount of constructive criticism that the school newspaper editors and faculty advisors can provide.