Stephan Pastis' cartoon yesterday made me laugh out loud. (Click the image to go to a larger version at the Pearls Before Swine Web page.)
Somehow I don't think my elementary school English teacher would have let me get away with that! Miss de Smit was an old tartar, who wasn't afraid to use corporal punishment when necessary (and yes, that was legal back then, which may shock modern sensibilities). Nevertheless, her methods must have worked, because we all graduated from her class with a pretty clear idea about English grammar, vocabulary and usage.
Peter
7 comments:
She probably still would have laughed... Just before paddling you.
I had an English teacher who would have marked it, "Ce n'est pas une feuille!"
Hehehe, the story of today's kids... sigh
I graduated from high school in 1970. My 9th grade English teacher told us that unless we majored in English in college his class was the last time we'd ever study English grammar. He was right.
Both my parents being commissioned officers in the Royal Indian Army in the Second World War and as they could not speak each others' native languages, English has been my language since day1. The lingua franca Urdu was acquired natively (i. e. with no recall of learning it: in earliest childhood). In the leftovers of the British Empire, colored folks were not expected to know English, so it didn't bother me one bit when the same was applicable after I came to the US of A. However, the inability of white folks to speak English bothered me no end: I kept correcting them, and they kept getting madder than a hornet, until over the course of time I unlearned English. Fortunately then I was a young enough dog to learn new tricks.
Still trying to find "toadmane", as in "toadmane poisoning" in the dictionary.
Funny ....I practically scoured the entire "T" section and still haven't been able to find it. I mean I KNOW the word exists---I've heard it used often enough on old television shows and such.
Why can't I find it. You would think the dictionary would have every word ....
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/?title=Ptomaine&redirect=no
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foodborne_illness#.22Ptomaine_poisoning.22
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