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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What is making all these people so insistent that we hold onto every last thing that was taught when they were young?  People weren't smarter or better educated in the past. Different things were prioritized.

I don't think extensive learning of the parts of speech is that relevant anymore.  A quick pass is good enough.  We are in an age with AI assist built into software, speech-to-text, AI generated text.  Even if you write a book, there is no longer a human editor marking up your grammar (I just finished writing one last year--for a major publisher).  Editors comment on your tone, audience, originality etc.   Grammar checks are automated with a light review.  At the same time, texting and on-line communication forms are rapidly evolving to become less formal and non-verbal.  There is little agreement on proper grammar.

There are many important things to learn and diagramming sentences may not make the cut anymore. Just encourage kids to read widely, write freely and learn to make good arguments using evidence and logic.

I think a lot of people are just trying to hold the children back from the future because they are afraid.[/quote]

Most writers and readers are lamenting that publishers have fired lots of editors and proofreaders.  You're the first I've seen who is happy about it.

And fyi, people were better educated back in the day.[/quote]

I'm sad they have lost their jobs.  A great editor is worth their weight in gold--but not because they edit grammar  Proofreaders are not that much better than the software.  I'm not happy about it--I'm facing reality.  I don't think people were better educated back in the day.  I think they were educated to the needs of their moment which were different than the needs of today.  I think every generation makes the same complaint.[/quote]

More people are educated today. They are not being educated at the level that is being advertised and there are many missing steps in education in order to keep that advertisement alive for all students. Watch the film Idiocracy. People can become less educated than previous generations. You see that all over Europe.[/quote]

I've seen Idiocracy.  I think we just have access to more information through social media to how people think that we used to never have access to before and it's disturbing to see.  But back in our day, you didn't get to hear the perspectives of every last person around.  But now anyone with an internet connection can spout off and get a following for hare-brained views.  I don't think it's education.  More people are educated than ever before so the average reported scores etc are going to go down because at one point the lower 1/3 would be dropping out of high school. But the high end of kids are achieving at heights that far exceed what many of the top 10% used to do.
My kid just completed college. I saw the quality of education he received at a FCPS high school and in college and I thought it was strong.  Did he receive the same education I did in the 90s? No, it was far stronger in some ways (e.g. he was expected to regularly use many peer-reviewed sources for research papers and process firsthand scholarship) and it was weaker in others (e.g., he had far less exposure to classic literature than I did).  He also learned programming and data science despite not being a STEM major -- not a part of my education at all.  My younger two are in middle and high school.  The quality of the electives, math and science has improved from my education and I went through what was regarded as "very good schools."  I'm disappointed in the literature (e.g. they read far fewer classic novels), but impressed by the range of non-fiction they read.  I actually like that they read a lot of diverse short forms of writing beyond fiction and learn about rhetorical techniques of persuasion.  [/quote]

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