Source: http://elementaryteacher.files.wordpress.com/2007/11

One of the joys of being unemployed, besides the obvious, is not to be lorded over anymore. It’s a simple thing, doesn’t take much, just not to be lorded over anymore. That doesn’t mean that I think I’m all that and change, but I do believe that I have some skills and talents that can be used for the good of a small sector of society. And I do believe that I belong here just as much as the next person. I have a mission.

Part of that mission is to be honest here. Forgive my existentialism.

I hate to see kids becoming illiterate because they’re using phonetic abbreviations as they text messages to each other. I wonder what they can possibly learning from that.  Then I remember that we had “slang books” when I was a teenager. What is different from the teenspeak we used then and what teens are doing now? Isn’t it a case of same take, different year? But then I wonder, have these kids ever read To Kill a Mockingbird? Have they ever listened to Maurice Ravel’s Bolero? Have they ever written a letter using proper English and grammar like the average schooled Civil War soldier? Yes, it’s scary. I hope that this new generation (under thirty) will realize what they are losing in knowledge and living experience. Maybe they’ll even miss those brain cells when they’re gone. Like I do.