Tuesday, 21 August 2012

letter from prison and education for the poor

My English leaves a lot to be desired, but that is mainly because l hardly had to write anything until the last few years, as l worked in jobs that did not require much paperwork.  I passed my English exams (language and literature), but my spelling and grammer was a lot better back in the day (although my vocabulary has increased).  However, this is put into perspective with the people l come into contact with and communicate with, both at work and away from it.  I then find that most people are not as good at using and understanding the language, and some are shockingly bad at it.  To demonstrate this, l accidentally opened a letter that had been wrongly addressed to my house, and it turned out to be from a prisoner, writing to try and get a visit from somebody.  The letter was resealed and handed back to the postman the next day, and l was obviously not going to scan it or reveal it's full contents, but before l resealed it, l couldn't help but be amazed at some of the mistakes.  The grammer was terrible, but these are a small selection of the words spelt incorrectly (with the correct spelling afterwards)

wiv - with
were - where
dose - does
thay - they
intill - untill
wot - what
anuff - enough
afhter  - after

Now the prisoner may well be dyslexic, but l have a sneaking suspicion that they have been poorly educated, not encouraged, come from a broken home or violent background,  and had no opportunities, therefore leading to a life of crime.  A lot of it may be their own fault, and they have made their own choices in life, but what real chances do they have of gaining meaningful and rewarding employment with so few writing skills and lack of education.  Unless something miraculous happens, this person will probably be a habitual re-offender, and may go onto major crime.  Surely it's better to throw money at educating and providing for the poor while they are young and a difference may be achieved, as it will only cost a lot more money (and harm to society) in the future.  Capitalism needs a poorly educated and cheap to employ workforce, but there are limits.

toodle pip 

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