Higher education and knowledge don't automatically produce greater communication skills. Physicist Albert Einstein, after all, could not explain his theories to most other scientists, let alone lay persons.
Educators today are still handicapped by the 1960s movements to New Math and New English.
New Math was exterminated humanely because it merely renamed familiar terms to enhance the mystic of mathematics.
New English, however, continues to erode legitimate communication. Schools of education trained thousands of teachers to breach the barriers of standard grammar, spelling and language usage.
Expediency was the motivation in New English. Students should be allowed to create and use their own grammar and spelling. It was their thoughts that counted, not their abilities to learn and follow stupid rules.
Generations of teachers and students since have worked diligently to build the new Tower of Babel without commas, hyphens, common spellings and other construction codes.
Teachers of English in schools and colleges also continue to concentrate on proper formats for term papers, which exist only in the rarified atmospheres of campuses. Ignored are the many informal forms of writing encountered in the real world.
Their students in the real world now draft pompous memos and letters that read like the small print in insurance contracts and service warranties produced by dyslexic lawyers. (7 MAR 99)
