This is going to come off terribly, and I’m going to sound like a big snob, but I just got out of a class comprised of the dumbest people I have ever encountered in my life. It actually pained me to sit there for three hours, and toward the end I was just throwing out answers to problems because listening to this poor professor (who has to be a child prodigy, like age 19 tops) struggle with silence was just too uncomfortable. But inevitably, someone would say, “Wait, hold on, you lost me” and I just died a little more inside every time.
Out of all the classes I’m taking this semester, the only one I was remotely dreading was Gen Chem because Chemistry was the only class in high school to make me cry. Now I’m dreading it for different reasons. In a whole three hours of the first class we didn’t even talk about one single atom, element, chemical, law, NOTHING. We talked about significant figures and scientific notation, and then did millions of problems because I guess no one in that entire class had ever been through high school. I had to fight back saying “Is this a joke?”
But by far the worst part was in the middle of the class when some girl said “But I had got something different for that problem.” My mind exploded. I’ve never encountered a situation where someone used such egregiously bad grammar and it was intended for an entire class to hear. I can understand it from people who speak English as a second language, but this was not the case. I’m sorry, but if you can’t use proper English, shouldn’t you have failed English at some point? Like maybe circa 6th grade? It makes me really sad that this is what schools churn out. I’m not saying that everyone has to use perfect grammar all the time, but “had got” is a fundamental mistake. Even in another language I can understand how and why that phrase is wrong. It’s different than me choosing to use “funnest” colloquially instead of “more fun.” The verb “get” is pretty vital, shouldn’t people know how to conjugate it properly? I have to assume that whoever taught that young lady used terrible grammar…. for years. Hello? No child left behind? WTF?
When people speak badly (or write, like you see so often now 0n teh int$rnetz) it makes me more sad than when people, say, get in car accidents. I get sad for populations that don’t know or realize how important it is to speak like a civilized human being. Because really, the only people who are successful and speak like that, are rappers, and they definitely perpetuate the cycle to some degree. Definitely with the word choice. The n*word. English can be such a beautiful language. I’m not saying I produce beautiful sentences, but I have read beautiful, masterful sentences and I appreciate them. I guess I just wish everyone could appreciate it. And I think this definitely has a lot to do with my love of reading and a lot to do with the fact that I was an English major, but ughhhhh. Even though I made no money and ended up basically soul-dead in publishing, I appreciate people who had the same attitude toward language that I did. And while more than $100,000 was spent on my worthless Bachelors in English, I don’t regret having it, because the things I read and were exposed to in pursuit of it make me a better person. I could have saved a lot of money had I just pursued sciences from the get-go. But would I know as much as I do now? No. And weirdly I’m really thankful that I took so much Philosophy in college because I know it taught me to think in a completely different way that I notice a lot of people aren’t capable of with their education. I’ve been sitting in these classes going over the syllabi and being shocked that really the only requirements are that I memorize a bunch of stuff and be able to pick it out on multiple choice questions. I don’t have to explain anything, I don’t have to defend anything. I don’t have to know anything backwards and forwards and have it engrained into my being. I’m not sure that my brain can handle an infinite amount of knowledge so I’m happy about that whole multiple choice thing, but it also is sad that this is what some people end up with at the end of college- facts. Or at the end of high school- bad grammar.
And now if you’ll excuse me, I’d really like to go put stickers on my planner because I’m such a grown up.
PS- It took me an hour to find a planner (at Target) because the first stop (Barnes and Nobles) only had wedding planners. First of all, I can’t even believe there are such things as wedding planners. Second of all, what the fuck. I was actually livid. What does it say about the perception of consumers that they only want wedding planners and not weekly planners. It’s not like it’s July or something, it’s January- a new year- and I need a ‘freakin planner to keep track of all of this nonsense. It was also really ironic that they didn’t have one while I was literally in between classes, in pursuit of this new career, feeling all empowered and smart, and the only thing BN is providing me with are wedding planners. I’m sorry, is planning the rest of my life not good enough? Don’t people do anything else besides GET MARRIED? I swear, if I ever do get married, which is unlikely, I’m going to elope because weddings are stupid. At this point it’s just a symbol of femininity that I’m not going to comply with. How many times in your life have you heard “get married, have kids…?” I’m sorry, but getting married and having kids are basically mindless activities (and I happen to have a really big brain that needs exercise and not so much pot pourri and Yo Gabba Gabba). A lot of the dumbest human beings on earth get married and have kids, and I think a lot of them do it just to keep up with everyone else. My grandma literally told me that I should just stop going to school and get married. I’m sorry, what? Oy, I forgot that this was just the PS section. Guess I should stop now.
Tagged: bad grammar, class, college, english, failure of the school systems, language, no child left behind, skills, stupid people, wedding planners, why weddings are stupid
