Peter Burgess said:
At the risk of leaving the main path of the discussion, I think many young people are LESS tolerant. Less tolerant of their peers who want to try their best. Is it not cool (especially for boys) to be seen to be part of the lowest common denominator of achievement? Are those who want to try hard seen as nerds and geeks?
It's not so much the 'trying hard' as the being interested in anything remotely academic. It's OK to try hard at sport. But even being interested in something that is not physical sees you labelled as 'sad'.
[quote author=langcliffe]
Standards have declined - according to a survey of vice-chancellors half of English universities now supply remedial classes in literacy and numeracy. "Poor mathematical skills were the biggest problem facing the universities, but the vice-chancellors also complained about declining writing skills, their students struggling with basic grammar and unable to write essays."
[/quote]
Standards at uni doesn't say anything about standards in the population as a whole. Bear in mind getting on for 50% of young people now go to uni compared with ?3% 50 years ago, and that all post A-level institutions (polytechnics, teacher training colleges etc) are now classed as universities.
Similarly, 16 year olds now take an exam designed for virtually the whole spectrum rather than one designed for the top few per cent, so it's not surprising that I look at GCSE mathematics work and am horrified at the lack of numeracy.
That said, I'm appalled at the sloppiness of 'shop window' information from many large and reputable organisations - brochures intended for the public, web pages, with elementary mistakes like "it's" instead of "its", ad "complimentary" instead of "complementary". I tend to the view that sloppiness in spelling and grammar means a sloppy approach in general, and a 'do as little as we can get away with' approach.