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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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If kids have to leave home to learn the letter "M" the home doesn't amount to much.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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addict
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addict
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Posts: 618 |
If kids have to leave home to learn the letter "M" the home doesn't amount to much.
It amounts to hoe.
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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These numbers are inexcusable on the part of the parents.
Well, yes, in general, they are. I can't say with any certainty about countries outside the U.S., but I have a suspicion this pretty much holds true everywhere: most of the people who are poor today come from families who have been poor for generations. They know no other way of living. They have always been on the fringes of society, and believe that they always will be. Only a minority realize that education is the way out. Most of the parents had difficulty in school, are not surprised when their children do, and even if they think of trying to improve their child's school performance, often aren't able to. Not all, but a lot, have the attitude, "Take my child and make him learn; expect no reinforcement from me". Parents who were not read to, or who never learned to read very well themselves, are not likely to read to their own children.
Okay, that was attitude. Now, poverty itself. Remember the three basic needs? Food, clothing, and shelter. When every day brings uncertainty about having enough of any of these, it is not surprising that academics don't even make it onto a parent's priority list. For convenience, I will say that there are two kinds of poor people: the ones on welfare, and the ones who have just barely too much income to qualify for welfare--and in my opinion this latter group is worse off.
The ones on welfare usually have subsidized rent, utilities, and get food stamps and a medical-treatment card.
The food stamps are set to a bare minimum--a lot of peanut butter and macaroni meals. The cash is also a bare minimum, which means clothes come from the charity shops, or the dollar store at best--and their classmates know it.
If a kid comes to school hungry, cold because their utilities were shut off, or still shaking from the fight between their parents, they are not going to be concentrating on their school work. Lack of the three basics causes enough stress to drop one's tolerance level pretty low, usually.
The working poor can really have it rough. They live paycheck to paycheck, and any unexpected expense often means they'll have to do without something--and often, it is something they need, such as a balanced diet, or heat. A car or refrigerator breakdown is a catastrophe. They might well get evicted. These parents are not likely to be going over their children's homework, if they are facing a crisis--which they can be, 'most any day. I still remember this 7-year-old girl who, though I had addressed "What kind of work do you do?" to her mother, responded with wrinkled nose, "She takes off her top and dances on tables." Mom did have the grace to look embarrassed, and said simply, "The money's good".
All of this did not even include addiction. I don't need to go into detail on spending the rent money. I will add a story, however. A school social worker I once knew was so depressed one day; she had done a magnificent job the day before of taking a young mother to the grocery on check day (when the welfare check arrived in the mail), and shown her that it is economical to buy large amounts of meat that's on sale. Then she'd gone home with the mother and shown her how to divide it into meal-sized portions and freeze them. She learned that, the next day, the mother had sold these portions for whatever anybody would give her, so she could buy drugs.
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It amounts to hoe.giggle giggle
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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If kids have to leave home to learn the letter "M"
You don't have to leave home to be bombarded by McDonalds, Dr. Bill.
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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:Yeah, Faldage. There may be many homes without books, but without a TV it isn't home.
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I think these numbers are way off. I read an article on lexicography years ago. The numbers in that article were:
Vocabulary of average high school student: 8,000
...of average college graduate: 12,000
...of average person with advanced degrees: 25,000
...of average lexicographer: 100,000
And the English language at the time was supposed to have included 600,000 words, but I've read since then that it had grown to 800,000 +
Again, I think these numbers are way off in the Newsweek report.
My two cents,
WW
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872 |
My two cents are on Whirlaway at fifteen to one.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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depends on what you call vocabulary. are they the words i know? can read, and understand? or the words i normally use in writing? or in speaking?
before spell check i never made a decision in writing (because i always had trouble spelling decide and it associated words..) so i would opt, or elect, or make a choice.
there are lots of words i know, but until this second, i don't think i've ever written about a carborator.. (a thing in (old) cars, that took in fresh air, through a butterfly valve, and mixed it with gasoline to get it ready to ignite in the internal combustion chamber.-- maybe not a consise dictionary defination, but i do know what a carborator is. so it is part of my vocabulary. but not a word i use very often.. I don't even say carborator that often, and i will say it less, now that most cars use fuel injection!
so which vocabulary are we counting?
words used in speach, in writing or in reading? or all of the words we know?
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear of Troy,
A person's vocabulary would be the reading vocabulary, which would be by far higher than the spoken vocabulary. In the article I read years ago, I read that a person's spoken vocabulary would be about a third of the reading (or working) vocabulary. Or: (flip the coin) You can divide the reading vocabulary by three and have a good idea of a person's spoken vocabulary. Even in writing, you wouldn't begin to use all the words you could recognize in context in reading. Your lowest used vocabulary, in other words, is your spoken; next would be writing; finally, highest, reading vocabulary. Your vocabulary is your reading vocabulary--you get credit for what you know!
I don't know how many points you get off for mondegreens and gang.
Book regards,
WW
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