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From: thom@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu (Thom Gillespie)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Against educational fads (was: math credit)
Message-ID: <39994@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 11 Dec 90 20:14:47 GMT
References: <15425@cs.utexas.edu> <1805@blackbird.afit.af.mil> <1990Dec11.152706.467@darwin.ntu.edu.au> <127218@linus.mitre.org>
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In article <127218@linus.mitre.org> bs@faron.mitre.org (Robert D. Silverman) writes:
>:> ... trimmmmed down ...
>:> My unsolicited $.02:
>:> 
>:> One of the reasons that students are becoming less and less capable
>:> also ... trimmmmed down ...
> 
>The MAIN reason students today are less capable of writing coherent English
>than students of a generation ago, is that they are reading much less and
>watching television much more.
>
Is this more back to the basic stuff, the good old days? etc.
My guess is that students today think better than when I was a kid. They may
not know the same but they know what they need to know. They will do fine. Time
marches forward not backwards.
>
>It has very little to do with the loose structure of English. If they
>read enough, they will acquire said structure.
>--
>Bob Silverman

Do we want them to acquier structure or intelligence? You don't need grammar or
gerunds to think.

>"You can lead a horse's ass to knowledge, but you can't make him think"

"... but you can make him watch."

--Thom Gillespie
--Thom Gillespie