Proof Intellectual Vacancy in US America is the Rule rather than exception

"At least two thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity, idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political idols."

Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894-1963)

Novelist, poet, essayist & screenwriter

Brave New World

Gallery of the Degenerate Culture of American Idiocy

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Students Use Chat Lingo in Class

Middle school teacher Julia Austin is noticing a new generation of errors creeping into her pupils' essays.

Sure, they still commit the classic blunders -- like the commonly used "ain't." But an increasing number of Austin's eighth-graders also submit classwork containing "b4," "ur," "2" and "wata" -- words that may confuse adults but are part of the teens' everyday lives.

This "instant messaging-speak" or "IM-speak" emerged more than a decade ago. Used in e-mails and cell phone text messages, most teens are familiar with this tech talk and use it to flirt, plan dates and gossip.

But junior high and high school teachers nationwide say they see a troubling trend: The words have become so commonplace in children's social lives that the techno spellings are finding their way into essays and other writing assignments.

"The IM-speak is so prevalent now," said Austin, a language arts teacher at Stonewall Jackson Middle School in Orlando. "I'm always having to instruct my students against using it."

[...]

Fourteen-year-old Brandi Concepcion, a pupil of Austin's, said wit, da and dat -- used in place of with, the and that -- sometimes creep into her homework.

"I write like that in the rough draft, but I try to catch the mistakes before I turn in the final draft," she said.

[...]

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