@ palimpsest - I attended and worked for IUP (Indiana University of PA). We had two distinct programs that were geared toward equalizing the playing field. The EOP program focused on kids from poor performing high schools (center city schools). The kids would start school in June and take 12 weeks of remedial math and English courses. Admission requirements were lower - lower GPA, lower SAT scores. These same students had free tutoring and were assigned mentors. It was meant to allow kids who were denied the opportunity to attend college and earn a degree because they attended a low performing high school that didn't prepare them for college. The Summer/Jan program offered the remedial math and English courses and regular courses. The kids in this program also had lower admission requirements, but not as low as the EOP program. These kids would also start school in June and take 12 weeks of classes. The majority would not come back in the fall, but were on a wait list to fill spaces where students dropped out or didn't return after fall semester. Your grades and professor recommendations determined where you landed on the wait list.

Neither program allowed students to graduate without maintaining a 2.0 GPA and completing the same classes that were required for any other student to graduate. It was a hand up, not a degree for money.

I have also worked with second chance facilities and helped people who were imprisoned to develop skills that would allow them to earn a living and I worked with a work skills program for the developmentally challenged.

When running my own business I hired HS graduates who had potential. I offered free tutoring and help with basic life skills. How to balance a checkbook, how to count back change, how to write a letter.

I have no issue with giving people a hand up.

I have an issue with the same high schools failing to educate the students after nearly 50 years of failing. When do we hold them accountable and say they must figure out how to do the job and stop accepting excuses for why they are failing.

My issue with Manor College is that they interviewed this young woman and recruited her. They made all kinds of promises to her and her parents, took money in the form of government grants and assisted both the girl and her parents get loans to make up the difference. After 4 years she had passed enough classes to be awarded an Associates Degree, but still needs assistance with filling out a job application or rental form.

The icing on the cake was after she graduated she was recruited by a 4 year college. Again, they made all kinds of promises, I went along when she toured the school and they were trying to sell her and her parents on the benefits of her continuing her education. The truth is that this family was an easy mark and the girl was nearly 6' tall and was a talented athlete with some mean basketball skills. Not good enough to go pro, but good enough to be noticed at the college level.

When do high school diplomas and college degrees become meaningless?

My kids are being taught to use the Oxford comma in school now.

When do high school diplomas and college degrees become meaningless?

Frequently, when sports are involved, even at "elite" institutions.

One of my personal issues is the constant misuse of “comprise” to the point that one can be corrected for using it correctly. Our nation COMPRISES 50 states. Not is comprised of 50 states. Nothing is ever “comprised of” anything.

@ bpath - I have some level of insecurity around spelling and grammar. Being the youngest of 6 kids I could never win the spelling games at home and got teased by my older brothers if I made a mistake. I learned to check my work and re-check and research and question and I still make mistakes, but I appreciate when someone corrects my mistakes. I learn from them. So thank you for letting me know that I may have made a mistake. We both learned something new.

Two ever-present issues:

Advice (noun) - Advise (verb)

Your - You're

What are y’all’s thoughts on molding vs moulding?

From what I've read, "moulding" is an older spelling than "molding." I think they're used interchangeably.

FWIW, I use autocomplete all the time on my phone because typing on a phone can be tedious.

I do hope most here are aware just how glitchy houzz is when it comes to posting comments. This is the only site I'd need to turn off autocomplete for, and that's tedious as well, which is why I avoid posting comments from my phone.

Even typing on a proper keyboard, sometimes my fingers seem to have a mind of their own. It's a good thing I like to proofread!

As I said above, thank God we're not Lemmings. Imagine how boring this world would be. But keep on criticizing all you want if it makes you feel big.

Top Ten Authors Who Ignored The Basic Rules of Punctuation

Tried posting this way back there and houzz glitched me out of my post, but I think I'll at least repeat that this cracked me up:

"I wasn't the least bit judgemental..."

😄

”However, things slip by me all the time, especially if I'm typing on my phone…”

Emily, I used to do quite a bit of editing, and those same slips happen to me.

@chloebud One of my worst ones was a big fat bolded note: CHECK REFERENCE!!! in the central chapter of my dissertation. Did I check the reference? Yes. Did I forget to remove said bolded note from the chapter, and now it's immortalized in the UMI dissertation repository for all 3 people who will ever download and read my masterpiece? Also yes.

We're human. We make mistakes.

“All three people who will ever read my masterpiece.” 😁

Picture I took of a street sign in a small town near me. Promise I didn’t photoshop it.

As for the reference to the Jay Leno bit, "JayWalking," where he would go out and ask people questions, often about Geography and other subjects: yes, it always made it seem like people in LA were ignorant, but I always realized that it was a comedy bit, and that if a person answered correctly, they would not get on TV, because they were not being 'funny.' Many of the responders were tourists from other places, out to have a good time, and were probably excited to have the chance to be seen on The Tonight Show. Of course, the producers would showcase the absurdly incorrect responses; it was not a scientific study, nor was it ever meant to be. The video shown above was of a similar nature, I suspect. I don't think these reveal much of anything about the intelligence or education level of anyone.

“Hasn't anyone ever seen Jay Leno go out on the streets of LA and get the same type of responses?”

Many times! I agree with ”any town or city.”

I’ve always hoped someone would name a Daschund ”Oxford” .

I swear, those random, on-the-street spots can be funny…and/or concerning!

Leno’s Jay Walking always made me laugh. I still remember him asking, ”What was the name of the ship in Mutiny on the Bounty?” No one knew, even with the answer in the question.

chloe, c-above. talk about the answer in the question!

Beth, I remember a lot of them. It's really pathetic. And funny. And concerning.

🤣…too funny! I could watch those things all day!

Diana, you're right. For the life of me I can't understand how so many people can be so dumb. I'm betting they all graduated from HS. These aren't even difficult questions. A few are worded a bit tricky, but geez, at 7 I could answer all of these!

I think it's because students really aren't required to read real books, in school or out. They don't do actual research by reading books (like us oldies used to do at the library). Now? Most just google the question and write the answer. There is no reading that takes place.

So sad.

Do you all remember the reading comprehension tests in either elementary or middle school? First we had to learn to read then we had to develop the skill of thinking about what we read. Listening or ”hearing” what’s being asked or said is also a skill to be learned. And don’t forget the writing assignments - book reports! IMO, I believe those skills are what are not being taught in today’s schools.

Don’t even get me started….

I think sometimes the stupid questions are harder to answer because it's hard to believe the question is that stupid.

While looking at some canning jars, a guy commented on how the sizes of some canning jars were confusing and how the conversion was hard. He then asked if I knew how many ounces in a quart. Knowing the jars were made in Italy, I started calculating mL until I realised what was actually asked ... because his initial complaint implied that he would be asking something that took actual thought or math, and ounces in a quart barely involved simple multiplication, if that. The question was too simple.

I also think that some of the bad spelling is really bad typing and not going back to fix it.

I have to admit that the first answers that popped to mind with some of those questions in Beth's list were extremely snarky. Examples: the clock is broken if its hands are on the 2 and 10, the hour hand should not have reached the 2, yet; there's no such country as "America" to be bordered; whose civil war?; and there is no parking for 75 cents for two hours ... $2.50 sounds more accurate.

Ok, get ready, I just read this on Houzz, "If you use your eyelin for prep...."

Clearly no proofreading done before hitting "submit." AI isn't always so I.

blueberrybundtcake:,

the clock is broken if its hands are on the 2 and 10, the hour hand should not have reached the 2,

The hour hand didn't reach the 2 yet, that's why I posted the picture

She couldn't tell time. any reasonable person would have said "ten to two", "one-fifty". No one would have told the guy, "well, I can't possibly give you a correct answer sir due to the fact that you have improperly placed the hour and minute hands on this elementary drawn clock. Therefore I find your question too confusing and have no idea what time it really is".

yet; there's no such country as "America" to be bordered;

United States of America is shortened to America. Why is this being questioned?

There is a country above USA and below USA, with borders. No need to be pedantic.

whose civil war?

The interviewer was asking Americans about the civil war. He'd already asked numerous other questions pertaining to American history. If ANY of them would have responded with, "Whose" or Which One", he would have clarified. They didn't. The fact is, they were clueless about ANY civil war.

there is no parking for 75 cents for two hours.$2.50 sounds more accurate.

The parking question was "if it was .75 for one hour and you parked for two hours, how much would you pay". The correct answer is $1.50. The fact that you don't think the cost for parking is high enough is irrelevant. It's a simple math question.

I did say they were snarky responses, which I suppose is a better word semantically than 'answers,' given that they didn't actually answer the questions, only responded to it. It wasn't a defense of the people; their answers are still create a sad image of the intelligence, or lack there of, of the population depicted. I just think that if we're going to pick on the answerers, it's only fair to pick on the asker, too. I mean, this topic is analysing typos, so why not look into the minutia of these questions and not just the obvious issues in their answers.

I did look at the picture; your description of the picture is accurate to my eyes, and the hour hand should be higher (about 5° higher for anyone who cares.) The response to the parking question, which originally read as a question with an imbedded answer rather than a math question, was purely snarky because I had to feed the meter a few dollars worth of quarters last time I was parking in Boston (and that was the cheap option ... the garages are at least three times that with validation.)

Children don't utilize clocks with hands these days so no mystery there why they can't read it. They don't see cursive writing or fruit and vegetables that aren't pre-cut either. I couldn't believe the amount of children that couldn't identify fruit and vegetables like tomatoes, potatoes and broccoli. People that get upset about what's being taught in schools don't seem to be concerned about the slop that is being fed to their kids at lunch. Middle class kids are slightly more fat than poor kids so its not a class thing. A study mentioned that normal weight children are being brought in to doctors because the overweight parent is concerned how thin the child is. I guess that would happen when 70% of American adults are obese or overweight. Imagine wanting to fatten your child up to make you feel better about yourself.

Scrolling back , I realize we're just getting dumber, fatter, and ever more accepting of both conditions. We joke about it, and don't see the scary aspect in a twenty year old gal who can not tell time of day. The old joke:

What does your watch say? It doesn't say, you have to read it. Technology, and the time digitally displayed on her I phone makes that unnecessary. The old cash register is long gone. Line up a hundred teens and ninety - nine of them would be incapable of counting back your change at the

grocery store; the same grocery where that teen doesn't recognize many of the fruits or vegetables.

You could argue as to whether there is a certain amount of shame in any of this. " Gee, I try, but I can't get any smarter, and no matter what I do eat or do, I am simply destined to be fat".

You could be magnanimous and agree that some folks can not avoid either obesity or stupidity ; that both are largely driven by environmental conditions beyond their control, and in some cases that certainly may be true. Children have no control over where they live, and had no control over who brought them into the world. Thus, we do not shame children. Maybe we crossed a line to where shame has became a dirty word when applied to anyone, which IS a shame. Shame is a motivator of change. Maybe you need not remain dumb, nor obese. Maybe, at a certain point, you have some control.

I can't name the exact date where absolutely everything became okay, if only because there is no specific date. There was simply a gradual slide to - "no shame! no worries!, you be you! it's all good! and with that came universal acceptance, no real motivation to change a darn thing. Choice is a word, too.

Not going to agree or disagree with anything anyone is saying about the state of the world today. Just want to say, if you are in the US, make sure you vote in this year's primary elections and general elections. Educate yourself about the candidates up and down the entire ballot. The federal races get most of the attention but the local and state elections are the predominant ones who decide what is taught in schools and how schools are funded. If you don't know who is on your local school board and the governing body who funds schools and what they believe are priorities, find out and vote for those who support your priorities. If you've already voted in the primaries, thank you!

Just thought of another one: compliment vs. complement.

Compliment can only be done by a human being, as in "I like your dress." Walls can't compliment rugs.

When describing decor items that work together, it's complement, as in "the wall color complements the colors in the rug."

Yes! It is most definitely a compliment if someone should admire your very complementary and harmonious selections with regard to the DINNING room wallpaper over your wayne scotting and....... rug

Sorry, couldn't resist lol

What can we do to change things. I know that not all kids are uneducated.

Compare and contrast: I have a 3 year old grand niece who already sounds out words and likes to read. She knows stuff I may have once known or never knew - She looks at the moon and knows if it is waxing or waning, enjoys puzzles . . .

I was on an overnight trip recently and one of the single dads brought his three year old son. The young man wanted to go out one night so I offered to stay at the hotel and watch his son. Bed time came and I helped him change into his PJs, brush his teeth . . . He got into bed and I asked him if he had a book we could read. "No." So I asked "do your mommy and daddy read to you?" I got an emphatic response "No - I don't like books!" He then reached for the remote control and turned on the TV and started going through the channels.

If at 3 he has already decided that he doesn't like books what chance does he have?

Being the interfering person that I am I mentioned this to the father. He said "I always hated reading too. I haven't read a book since I graduated from high school." Dad works in the trades (roofer), so he may not need to read, but his mom is a nurse at our local hospital. She has to know the importance of reading. She couldn't do her job if she couldn't read the charts. Why wouldn't she read to her child?

I agree, Tozmo.

On that note, and in the spirit of this thread, I think all presidential candidates should have to take IQ tests.

I wonder how many people get asked all these questions though and get every one right.

However, I also how much it is preselected that the people who will stop and be interviewed are not going to be the sort of person who performs well.

I live in a major city, so I have been stopped on the street and asked questions, even by local TV stations, and my answer is always "Sorry, but absolutely not, I am not being interviewed." And if I were for this sort of thing above, I wouldn't get shown because someone who gets the answers correct is not aligned with their agenda.

Exactly, @palimset! Using gotcha TV clips, whose content is obviously curated and heavily edited, to prove anything about anything is pretty naive (I will avoid using terms like “dumb”). As for analog watches? Eh. I feel like that’s a nice to know, not a need to know. How many of us know how to use a slide rule?

But 100% on the importance of educating yourself on your entire ballot and voting; modeling the love of reading for your kids; adequately funding public schools; and sacrificing to support all kids, not just our bio kids.

Wow, 140 comments. Might as well add another grammar lesson instead of telling folks to avoid buying big black leather couches and winding up with a Design Dilemma:

Difference between "compliment" and "complement." From Grammarly:

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/complement-compliment/#:~:text=compliment%20confusion%20once%20and%20for,you%20look%20nice%20this%20evening.

Compliment: a statement of praise:: "Your sage siding looks perfect with the pumpkin colored door."

Complement: One thiing enhancing another. "That pumpkin colored door complements your sage siding." Or: "The red wine perfectly complements the steak."

My son has a learning disability and struggled from the time he was three (@jenniferhoganI we read to him every night and poured over books when he was less than two). When we did the alphabet he would get so frustrated and being our first, thought it would come. Once in pre-school we/he became more and more conscious of his difficulties. We had a tutor by grade 3 and he was taken out of the classroom for special help, but his shyness and embarrassment had already taken a big toll on his self esteem (has a high IQ but that didn’t help). We switched him to a top private school as they were using computers and they had made all kinds of promises. One of his teachers offered to tutor him before class (we had a private tutor as well), but when he was asked to stand up in English class and read Macbeth, he was so humiliated as the kids laughed at him, reinforcing his feeling and knew the school wasn’t right. We switched him to our local high school where there was in a special ed class (with over 30 students) and that helped. He went on to college but quit the first week.

All this to say…..there are all kinds of unseen disabilities and because they are, there is less understanding and tolerance. If usage and misspelling is annoying, move on - you know what was meant. Please be considerate, they may be dependent (or not) on spell check and not be sloppy or clueless.

@ Maureen

Very Interesting...

https://pamwithers.com/learning-write-boys-versus-girls/

I know the "man on the street" videos are funny but what you don't see are the many, many people who answered the questions correctly. That's just not entertaining.

Why wouldn't a nurse read to her child? I can think of ten very valid reasons right off the top of my head. We never know the struggles a person is dealing with.

I encourage everyone to read the book, "Talking to Strangers," by Malcolm Gladwell.

The problem, Maureen, is that one doesn’t always know what was meant, either in the written or spoken words. I feel bad for your son and his disability, and would never allow any student in my class to humiliate or laugh at another student’s behavior.
That being said standardized spelling, grammar, punctuation and usage make it easier for people to communicate. Have you ever tried reading Chaucer? He wrote before Samuel Johnson wrote the first English dictionary. Spelled the same word several different ways, which makes it difficult to understand. Mete, meat, meet, all different meanings and different spellings. Standards help.

@Jan Thank you. One summer our son attended a specialized school with classes of 5-7. There was an elaborate testing system and they could narrow down how each child learned/should be taught. He got A’s, so that tells a lot.

So much here to agree with, and to disagree with! And yes, I should write it: "with which to disagree." I get it, lest anyone on here wants to nitpick my grammar choice. As for analog clocks: we DO teach how to read them, and my students learned this skill, but with so few opportunities to use it and the prevalence of digital clocks, it is a skill that atrophies. I mentioned in an earlier post that in many schools, cursive is still taught, and some never stopped, but again, it is a skill that needs practice to endure.

There was also a comment about reading and writing instruction: "And don’t forget the writing assignments - book reports! IMO, I believe those skills are what are not being taught in today’s schools." My 3rd graders were required to do book reports monthly, from October through May, and that was not unique to my school. The ultimate goal of reading instruction is comprehension, and that is a skill that children acquire at different times and differing rates, and yes, parents who read to and with their children from infancy and toddlerhood and beyond, set the foundation for success in these areas.

I read a lot of education and teacher-bashing on this site, but parents are the primary influence on how their children are prepared for school, their behavior, their work ethic, their attitudes to school, and for fostering a child's instinctive love of learning. I understand that we are all venting here, and there are many things to vent about; my take is that we are all responsible for our own education, or lack thereof. The opportunities for learning are all around us, in schools, museums, libraries, the home, nature, concert halls, sports venues, theaters, and so much more. Unfortunately, social media is taking up more than its fair share of everyone's opportunities.

When millennials were young, velcro sneakers and shoes were very popular, and there was a concern that young kids would not know how to tie shoes. They went out of fashion, so that did not come to pass.

@Diana’s Interior Designs For sure standards are necessary and language has changed and will be constantly; the dictionary is adding new words every year.

This posting‘s issue was around common words being misused and misspelled and I wanted to provide a perspective basically on that topic, so people could be more tolerant, as the wrong usage of dining, complement, advice, etc won’t make things difficult to understand the query.

Never mind Chaucer! Tolstoy is too much for me; tried to read War and Peace twice without luck!

Decorpatti - it has recently been declared by the powers that be that ending a sentence with a preposition is acceptable now.

blueskysunnyday - good to know! It more closely matches how people actually speak, but this is probably how many of the conventions/standards get 'lowered' over time. Thanks for the update!

Sure! I doubt anyone is regularly using iambic pentameter.

That said , unless writing a play?

Writing as you speak for anything truly important , is not the best idea . Conversation affords a lot of freedom.