It's a tricky issue. Here I'm going to sound like Mr Grumpy old man who's just lifted his nose out of the Daily Mail, but the whole downward trend in standards does mystify me.
From a personal viewpoint, I failed 11-plus and spent my secondary education in the middle stream of a secondary modern school. From an educational standpoint, that probably makes me just a couple of degrees above a total failure. When I left school, just 7-8% of school leavers were going to University. I don't know what that percentage is today, but I would wildly guess at at least 60%. If you were actually doing A levels at my school you were Dr. Brainbox, and we were all in dumbstruck in awe at this achievement.
However, I did at least learn and retain the ability to spell and write reasonably well. I think it was the shame of being a failure in the regular spelling and grammar tests we did at primary school. It was a convent, by the way, so perhaps that makes the difference.
I do accept that spelling and grammar ability will vary between individuals. What I find less easy to accept is the arrogance of those who have lesser spelling ability.
By that I mean that some of us will at least check our spelling.
I would rarely correct anyone on these fora, because I believe that is equally arrogant, but what I really need to know is: when did it all go wrong, or has it been a slow reverse evolutionary process?
Oh, and sorry for the ramble.
. They're taught that grammar is really not that important as long as the meaning is there. The number of times my kids have stated that 'spelling's not important' when submitting work is infuriating.
It wasn't very pleasant, as this description in wiki shows...
