A little light relief at the Supermarket
By recycledgoth
@recycledgoth (9894)
February 18, 2010 7:57am CST
I'm standing there with my basket containing five items, in the ten items or less queue. A little further up the line in front of me is what can best be described as a Waynetta Slob lookalike with a trolly loaded with piles of brand name junk foods and surrounded by an assortment of bawling kids. She proceeds to shout and swear at the kids while trying to pile her junk food onto the small shelf designed for the basket. The girl at the checkout points out that she's in the wrong line and that she should take her trolly load to one of the larger checkouts.
Waynetta proceeds to let fly with a stream of invective that would put an sailor to shame, as she throws her shopping back and stomps out with the brood trailing behind her. The lady next in the line and immediately in front of me, puts her basket up to the shelf and smiles as she says
"Well, she may be able to use those words but I wonder if she knows how to spell them"
That comment broke the entire queue and brought grins to everyone's faces.
It did, however, make me wonder whether the standards of education have slipped so badly that people can't even spell abusive language. What do you think? Have standards in spelling, grammer and education fallen since you were at school?5 people like this
15 responses
@GreenMoo (11834)
•
19 Feb 10
I don´t live in the UK full time anymore so I just see a snapshot every once in a while, but I don´t think they´ve fallen that much. It´s easy to blame computer games, text speak etc for falling literacy standards but Waynetta types are hardly a new thing. There were Waynetta Slob in the makings in my school year, in my Mother´s school year and I´m sure in my Grandmother´s school year as well.
The exception I think is spelling, which really has deteriorated. Spelling doesn´t seem to be considered important in schools today. I remember doing weekly spelling tests when I was young, but none of the children of my friends past the very early stages of reading seem to be doing those today. I´m guessing that spell check reduces the necessity of perfect spelling first time, but I feel that poor spelling and grammar puts the writer at a disadvantage.
3 people like this
@kaylachan (69776)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
19 Feb 10
Standards have gone down and depending on where you live a good edicuation is not valued as much as other things are. I remember my school spent more time trying to make the students productive members of socieity rather then teaching them accidements. So yeah.... I hated it. I learned more out of school then I did in it, which is sad.
3 people like this
@scorpiobabes (7225)
• United States
19 Feb 10
I've wondered the same thing too! I think with the use of emoticons and acronyms these days, that an entire generation will begin to lose the ability to properly converse! When I was in school (and I only graduated 20 years ago!), you had to not only be able to properly write a sentence, it had to be diagrammed, spelled, and be placed within the proper part of a well-constructed paragraph! Remember when Mike Tyson attempted to begin inserting really big words into sentences without fully knowing their meaning nor the context that they should be used? It seems nowadays that more and more young people can't converse properly! Remember a few years back here on myLot, how we used to get so upset when someone would use 'chat speak' here? I used to not even respond or rate people that did that to my discussions!
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
23 Feb 10
I think the standards have dropped dramatically. My pet peeve is the lack of use of capital letters and some punctuation, like the apostrophe. a young friend of mine does not use upper case and types using text speak a lot. She says it takes too long to switch to upper case and write the full words, even people's names are without the initial capital letter. I find this disrespectful.
She has just had a baby and I'm wondering what sort of an example will she set her little one. Do parents not want their children to do well at school and to get good jobs?
Is it me? Am I just too old fashioned? Is it no longer important to write correctly and spell correctly?
@recycledgoth (9894)
•
23 Feb 10
I'm so glad it's not just me then hun, I thought I was old fashioned in my thinking. I still feel that educational standards have slipped since I was at school.
1 person likes this
@PurpleTeddyBear (6685)
• Canada
18 Feb 10
Hi Hun! Well I do know that kids have a lot harder school work then I ever did as a kid. My girls aren't in school yet, but my friends son has brought home homework I wouldn't know how to do and I'm in my 30's and he's a teen! BUT I have noticed that outside of school kids of all ages have a very colorful vocabulary that they may indeed not know how to spell, and don't get me started on the short forms of texting and chatting on msn or yahoo! Typing BRB because one is too lazy to type Be Right Back, and the list goes on! I admit I do it too 
So I guess I'm lazy too!
BUT I have noticed that outside of school kids of all ages have a very colorful vocabulary that they may indeed not know how to spell, and don't get me started on the short forms of texting and chatting on msn or yahoo! Typing BRB because one is too lazy to type Be Right Back, and the list goes on! I admit I do it too So I guess I'm lazy too!@recycledgoth (9894)
•
18 Feb 10
Txt Spk, I hate it but it has wormed it's way into everyone's life these days. *giggles*
1 person likes this
@scarlet_woman (23463)
• United States
19 Feb 10
oh yes it has.the kids around here seem hard pressed to complete a sentence,let alone spell it.they had a row this week matter of fact where they were considering firing the entire high school staff in one town and replacing them,because the school's testing has been consecutively bad for years now.
and of course the teachers are threatening to drag in lawyers.
i can't blame them in a way,the teachers around here make 80K a year with full benefits and strike right before school opens for more every single year.
some blame does have to fall on txt speak for spelling though..they get used to it faster than the correct way.they were having kids hand in papers written entirely in txt.
2 people like this
@danishcanadian (28953)
• Canada
24 Feb 10
That is way too funny. I love it!! As for standards of education and grammar, one thing that drives me completely nuts is when someone uses "your" when they should use "you're"
"Your not going to do that" and other misuses of the word "your" as opposed to "you're" drives me up the wall. We would not have gotten away with that when i was in school.
1 person likes this
@PurpleTeddyBear (6685)
• Canada
18 Feb 10
Sooooooooo true cher! BUT I do know that their teacher wouldn't let them get away with it in school! I think the way kids are, act, and behave at school vs outside school are 2 VERY different kids. The smart kid only comes out at school and the lazy how r u , brb ggp kids at home are completely dumb-founded!
1 person likes this
@drknlvly6781 (6246)
• United States
18 Feb 10
Not according to the homework that my kids bring home lol. It seems a lot harder than when I was in Kindergarten and Second Grade. I think that parents nowadays are less involved in children's life, either because of the need to work, or even because they are just not as attentive as generations before. They aren't putting as much emphasis on education as past generations have, therefore children aren't putting as much effort in learning as they used to. What some parents don't realize is school isn't just a place for your kids to go so you can have a break, it is where they learn the educational and social skills they need to survive in the world when they become adults. If your children feel like you don't have any interest in their education, they will not put forth the necessary effort.
1 person likes this
@recycledgoth (9894)
•
18 Feb 10
It does appear that the parents are a lot less interested in their children's education these days, but I remember way way back when I was a school and the work seemed harder and we had to work.
1 person likes this
@drknlvly6781 (6246)
• United States
18 Feb 10
I guess you don't have any young kids in school. I look at my daughters homework who is in kindergarten, and she is doing things that I didn't have in school until the first and second grade. Both my children know loads about computers, which I didn't even get to use until like the 3rd grade. (My son is in the second) I know that people say that the US is behind in education considering the rest of the world, but from what my kids bring home, I think we are making some progress in catching up.
1 person likes this
@zed_k4 (17589)
• Singapore
18 Feb 10
Light relief, comic relief.. we see this kind of things everyday in life. That was quite a chuckling thing, when someone commented about the spelling part. Makes me think about people whom I've encountered on my day to day life, and since you mention the supermarket, my mom has lots of stories like that too. She always tells me, so I know.
1 person likes this
@CRIVAS (1815)
• Canada
18 Feb 10
I'm not sure but I have to say that from what I have noticed, I would have to say yes. I have noticed that there are a lot of people who aren't even finishing high school anymore, when I was in school, high school was one of the more important parts of life. Now all anyone seems to care about it getting a job and making money. I have also noticed that there are a lot more ignorant people around now a days, I have come across a couple of people like that in the supermarket myself. I just have to shake my head because when I was younger, I would never hear people talk that way, especially in front of children. I do feel sorry for those children of hers though. If she is talking like that in front of them, you can bet that they will do the same and spread it to their own children when they have them. It is a shame that some parents just don't seem to care anymore. Personally I never swear in front of my kids if I can help it, and I certainly wouldn't cause a scene like that in front of them either. I think that the women was ignorant, rude and deserves whatever Karma decides to dish out to her in the future. I just hope that there weren't any other children around to listen to her rude behavior.
1 person likes this
@recycledgoth (9894)
•
18 Feb 10
Unfortunately there were a lot of young children in the supermarket at the time, but I suspect they are all used to that kind of language and ignorance. *sighs*
@Sandra1952 (6047)
• Spain
18 Feb 10
Hello, Recycledgoth. That's brilliant - I'd love to have been there. Presumeably, Waynetta couldn't count, either, or she wouldn't have been in the '10 Items' queue.
I'm certain standards have slipped, and proof is available. I've seen reprinted 11 Plus papers from the early 1960's, and the questions are more challenging than some of those in O Level papers today. It's all part of the ridiculous premise that no child should feel a failure, and things can only get worse, I fear.
@recycledgoth (9894)
•
18 Feb 10
I was in the first group of children to go from 11+ straight into secondary school and I remember how hard we had to work and how much emphasis was put on high standards.
@TTCCWW (579)
• United States
18 Feb 10
I was appalled at how really poor my own education was and I was raised in one of the best school districts in the nation. The amount of wrong history, civics and science we were given was disgraceful.
I now have the oppertunity to hire high school graduates and it is absolutley disgusting that we are paying taxes for this kind of education for our next generation. These poor kids have no idea just how little they have received and how damaging that is to their future. I had four kids in a row that could not write a phone message of had to be trained to use a calculator.
It scares me when I think about how these kids are going to survive in the real world.
A recent study found that 50% of American students could not find New York on a map. That tells me that they probably could not find there own town on a map.
God help us all;-)
1 person likes this
@recycledgoth (9894)
•
18 Feb 10
Just think, in a few years time, that is the generation who will have their fingers on the button - lol
