Heads nodded in agreement when he said, "High school English teachers are not doing their obs. " He described the inadequacies of his students, all high school graduates who can use anguage only at a grade 9 level. I was unable to determine from his answers to my questions low this grade 9 level had been established.
My topic is not standards nor its decline (F^&). What the speaker was really saying is hat he is no longer young; he has been teaching for sixteen years, and is able to think and speak like a mature adult.
My point is that the frequent complaint of one generation about the one immediately ollowing it is inevitable. It is also human nature to look for the reasons for our dissatisfaction. 3efore English became a school subject in the late nineteenth century, it was difficult to find he target of the blame for language deficiencies (Afe F& ). But since then, English teachers lave been under constant attack.
The complainers think they have hit upon an original idea. As their own command of the anguage improves, they notice that young people do not have this same ability. Unaware that heir own ability has developed through the years, they assume the new generation of young seople must be hopeless in this respect. To the eyes and ears of sensitive adults the language )f the young always seems inadequate.
Since this concern about the decline and fall of the English language is not perceived as a jeneration phenomenon but rather as something new and peculiar to today’s young people, it laturally follows that today’s English teachers cannot be doing their jobs. Otherwise, young seople would not commit offenses against the language.