There seems to be a strong consensus here which is heartening. My experience on the 'cat (whether pro or con on whatever the topic may be) is that the large majority of 'catters are intelligent and write well. Kudos!

Creative writing was my minor in college and a professor friend of mine invited me into his office one day and during the course of our conversation he handed to me about a ream of theme papers from a freshman composition class. I was stunned. Almost none of the papers had coherent sentences, proper paragraphing or logical structure. It seems to be a universal problem.

And yes, I would lay most of the blame on sub par teachers and the idea that it is better to pass the student along with his peers than to make sure that he has actually learned something. Appalling!

Words are the stuff of thought and tools of logic are necessary for sane thinking. Today, when a kid gets a diploma, it may just be furthering the delusion that he is educated. The ramifications of this problem are indeed far reaching and not just a little frightening. We (and I don't mean just any one nation) may be very technologically advanced and could still witness another "Dark Ages".