^understood Raz. That last statement made me sound like a pompous arsehole. I should have explained myself. Actually I shouldn't have sounded like a pompous arsehole.
The language used was over the top, it was said out of frustration. Having said that, though, i look at someone like George W Bush, who can't seem to form a complete sentence, and is president of the USA. That's fucked. My concern is that we're going to have so many kids that can't read and write at an acceptable level, we're going to have someone like that as Prime Minister.
Sorry if i caused offense, i certainly didn't mean it. I do think it is a concern, though, that we could potentially end up with a generation of adults, who, in falling through the cracks of the education system, can't read & write at a functional level. Even if you're brothers spelling and grammar are shit, i'm sure he can read & write functionally. These kids are
12 years old, and can only read at a 7 or 8 year old level and are about to enter high school. What hope in hell have they got, considering the overpopulation of highschools and the increasingly neglectful atmosphere of classrooms?
I do know that intelligence isn't measured by one yardstick. I have quite a few friends who didn't complete high school, and have never gone to uni (I began a course in uni but didn't complete it), and these people are really smart. They build houses, they, like your brother, are great with electronics and the like. That's not my issue at all. I totally recognise that intelligence isn't purely measured by whether someone attended university or hell, how many times someone has read the complete works of Shakespeare. I actually scoff at that notion. I will, however stand by my opinion that, it is important to be able to read and write at a
functional level.
My nephew is dyslexic. He was lucky that he attends a school that is small enough to provide relatively pesonalised, one on one education. The teachers picked up on his reading difficulties and he's being treated now. What frustrates the fuck out of me is that such a large number of kids are falling through the cracks. Overpopulation of schools is a major cause of this (hell, even at my high school - 11 years ago - we had 40+ kids in some classes) as well as the extra stress being placed on teachers regarding discipline of students. Teachers can't discipline at all nowadays, for fear of being sued by opportunistic parents, so they tend to stop caring. When the teachers stop caring, the kids stop caring...
Again, i apologise to you for causing offense, but i can guarantee that i wasn't speaking about people with learning difficulties, people that may not have the best spelling and grammar or people that didn't finish school. If i was, then i'd be dissing my nephew, husband and numerous friends.