My mother was an English teacher for years in Catholic schools and so I suppose it was only natural that I would not only end up in a Catholic school, but would also end up being what others refer to as a “Grammar Nazi”. Imagine my shock and dismay when I saw a link to an article in the Daily Caller, shared with me by my mother, that said “Professor says kids don’t need to learn spelling and grammar because of smart-phones”. After reading the article I was, well, disgusted.

When I was in school, which doesn’t seem like it was all that long ago, we tirelessly diagramed sentences and went over parts of speech constantly. The end result of this was that I knew how to write, and how to speak excellent English, both of which have served me incredibly well over the years. As a teacher of college students that range in age from their early twenties (recent high school grads) to their sixties; I can tell you exactly what those who made up the  educational vanguard and their tireless following of this or that educational fad has done to student’s abilities to write effectively, never mind well. At least if I assign a standard five paragraph essay to an older student, they know the format by heart and can execute it. The recent high school grads-well lets just say I might as well be speaking Greek.

On the topic of smart phones being the end all be all of grammar and spelling corrections-PLEASE! That MUST be why we have the site www.damnyouautocorrect.com, because smart phones are CLEARLY the arbiters of perfect grammar and spelling. Yes, that must be why my iPhone once substituted “lesbians” for “legislative”. The professor in the article also mentions that he “often skips grammar and writes in a  cryptic way”, which is unacceptable in my eyes. My students often observe a similar practice-and they suffer the consequences.

None of this would really bother me if it were some random professor that no one really pays attention to at a second rate, no name recognition school. Unfortunately this is Sigata Mitra who is an educational technology professor at the University of Newcastle in England, and is an award winning pioneer in the field of education and cognitive science-which makes him a thought leader in education the world over.

All I can advise parents to do is this-stay involved in your children’s education! Be active in the Parent Teacher Association (or Organization) and know what the school is requiring (or not requiring) of their students. This is even more important with the impending dawn of the Common Core Standards-which 45 states have signed on to. Check out the ladies at http://whatiscommoncore.wordpress.com/ for excellent information on what this utopian ideal is-and how to combat it in your schools.

Don’t accept the dumbing down of our children, practice grammar and spelling at home-and they will thank you (eventually).