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> “Great injury was done after the engine ran up the platform. The brickwork was swept away, and a large portion of a wall was thrown down; in fact, one carriag
by laumars 9y ago
> “Great injury was done after the engine ran up the platform. The brickwork was swept away, and a large portion of a wall was thrown down; in fact, one carriage was thrown completely through the platform wall by the violence with which it was hurled over the line.”
> The Era, 26 February 1860.
It is amusing to read the writing styles of then with the now. The use of language in the Victorian era was a lot more poetic. While in many ways I do welcome the directness that modern articles have, I do also feel we've lost something in artistic merit.
- Boothroid 9y agoI agree. The obvious culprit is trendy educational methods - these days it's seen as more important to let children express their supposed individuality rather than inculcate a decent standard of literacy. Some would characterise this as a Daily Mail-esque viewpoint, but university professors complain about standards worsening in their annual intake of students, and I'm inclined to listen to those at the chalkface.
- zimpenfish 9y ago> university professors complain about standards worsening in their annual intake of students They've been doing that since the 11th Century[1] - if this were even vaguely true, your current average student intake would be somewhere around the level of planaria or possibly tardigrades. It's demonstrable rubbish. [1] http://www.medievalists.net/2015/09/the-long-history-of-teachers-complaining-about-students/ http://www.medievalists.net/2015/09/the-long-history-of-teac...
- Boothroid 9y agoAh yes, the well-worn 'people have always been complaining about things getting worse' rebuttal.. But your argument is flawed - just because it might not always have been true does not mean it is not true now. As I said, I'm inclined to believe those at the chalkface. Here's one reference I was able to find easily: https://www.bjupress.com/resources/articles/t2t/declining-literacy.php https://www.bjupress.com/resources/articles/t2t/declining-li...
- zimpenfish 9y ago> bjupress.com Would you consider them an unbiased source given their stated goal is to "support Christian educators by producing textbooks and materials that shape a biblical worldview"?
- icebraining 9y agoI find that article to be in need of review by someone with good literacy. It presents single datapoints and talks about "this decline", despite not actually presenting past data to compare with the current numbers. The largest timespan it shows is the literacy from '92 to '03, and they explicitly quote the report saying that "average prose and document literacy did not differ significantly". They also fail to mention that the 2003 report showed no decline except for Hispanics. Maybe, just maybe, immigration by people with non-English backgrounds was the cause, not textbooks? It'd be nice to at least see that discussed.
- zimpenfish 9y ago> they explicitly quote the report saying that [...] Which ignored the part immediately before that citing an 8 point rise in quantitative literacy between '92 and '03. Also blatantly ignored the following sentence showing +6 for prose and +8 for document literacy for POC. And the one about Asian/Pacific Islanders getting +16 from '92 to '03. It is a shoddy piece of work picking only those points that bolster their existing conclusion.
- jcranmer 9y ago
- m0nty 9y agoHow is expressing your individuality incompatible with good writing?
- Boothroid 9y agoa. are we really going to harm poor precious little Henry by making him rote learn grammar instead of expressing the minimal amount of individuality he might have by school age (we don't read books written by children because they don't have much interesting to say) b. by not giving children a proper grasp of language we are actually limiting their ability to express themselves, for God's sake
- laumars 9y agoI think it's dangerous to assume that kids neither have individually nor anything interesting to say. Just the other day my 3 year old was explaining to me how cars, tablet PCs and people all need different types of energy to function. I found that conversation to be far more interesting than half the discussions I have with peers of my own age.
- Boothroid 9y agoOK, so what about point b - by prioritising children expressing their individuality we are actually limiting their ability to express themselves with eloquence?
- laumars 9y agoI didn't really want to get into an argument about education but since you asked: honestly, I see no evidence to support your point. My wife is a primary school teacher and most of my extended family currently work or have worked in schools. Not one person I've spoken to has ever talked about kids being treated even remotely in the fashion you describe. I am sure you could find some specific examples which support your theory but my experience would suggest those examples are the exception rather than the norm. You could make the argument that it is easier for kids to express their individuality than it ever has been but I think the credit for that belongs to the Internet and changing social attitudes rather than schooling (though maybe schools have become more intolerant to bullying than when I was young? That would also certainly help).
- brudgers 9y agoContemporary education eschews the use of passive voice. The passage would judged negatively in most contemporary classrooms in the English speaking world.
- protomyth 9y agoWhat is the reason for rejection of the passive voice?
- brudgers 9y agoMy guess/speculation/opinion is that it is related to the common pedagogical premise that the primary purpose of writing is to present a convincing argument. And passive voice is viewed as "weaker" in the context of debate and argument by conventional wisdom. For what it's worth, I think the emphasis on writing to argue and convince is a significant contributing factor to the behaviors people exhibit once they discover text boxes on the internet. An alternative approach to writing is as a tool to examine one's own thoughts...and perhaps explain them to others. That is, writing can be a tool by which the writer comes to understand the subject rather than a means of teaching it to others. This is a bit more at odds with the idea that education is about filling up the empty bucket of a student's mind.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- brudgers 9y agoUse of the passive voice gives it a different rhythm. Contemporary "best practice" is to avoid writing in passive voice. What I find interesting is that using active voice for inanimate objects like brickwork and walls and carriages, seems a bit anthropomorphic or perhaps animistic. Sure, "the wall fell" but not by its own volition. Yet, for me the passive voice in this passage bogs down a bit in the final phrasing as subordinate clauses convolute as multiple inanimates suffer external effects. But in the end, the use of passive voice allows "great injury" to be the subject of the first sentence and empowers the paragraph in a way that "The engine" as subject simply cannot.
- gwbas1c 9y agoWe have access to many more news stories now, writing for easy reading is a must. When news travels at a slower pace artistic writing is a must.