Everything's bigger in Texas...even our morons.

I don't know how I was, but someone added me to an open Facebook group called "You know your from Texas when...", (http://j.mp/rdOpdW) and the "your" was spelled incorrectly in the title. Obviously, such groups are supposed to poke harmless fun that inspires pride in living in said area. So of course, I read a few posts, chuckled at some of them while nodding in acknowledgment of the truth of the statement posted. In an attempt to come up with my own contribution to the group, I thought about what I wanted to say. And then it hit me. I looked at the title of the group and noticed how "you're" was misspelled. The group creator should've used "you're," the contraction that puts "you" and "are" together, but instead it had "your" which is a possessive pronoun (e.g., "your car," "your house," "your life" etc.). Once I saw the error, I posted the following: "...when you don't notice or care that you used the wrong 'you're' in the group's title." This was just yesterday, and I've received plenty of Likes on it. Upon receiving notifications of other posts in the group, I noticed I wasn't the only one posting about the group title's error. Now when I go back, there are people who are asking those complaining about it to leave the group...which I did yesterday. What upset me more than the spelling/grammar error I saw in the title (and some in other posts as well), was the sheer apathy about good grammar and spelling. There was even one guy who was ignorant enough to say things like (I'm NOT quoting verbatim) "This is how we talk in Texas....I'm from Texas, and I'm proud of my heritage." This particular person even went as far as to call another "grammar policeman" a "fucking faggot" for being critical...because, you know, good grammar and sexuality have so much in common.

Oh, and as for the whole "This is how we talk in Texas" remark, yes, it's true, but put your talk in writing, and you reveal your intelligence. But it reminded me of something else. A common contraction in Texas is putting "you" and "all" together to say "y'all," and yet there are SO many people who write it as "ya'll." How does one split up a single world that can't be split up?

As irritated as these things can make me, this post is not just about the mistakes that are commonly made in writing, but about the seemingly proud display of apathy and ignorance with regard to these types of things. Here we Texans are claiming that Texas is the #1 state in the union, but if that was the case, then we'd have the lowest unemployment rate in the country, no one would be living below the poverty line, we'd have the lowest abortion rate, the least amount of uninsured people, and we wouldn't be close to the bottom percentile in education and drop-out rates.

One comment I saw in defense of the grammar mistake was "This is FACEBOOK, not high school or college!" Though that is true, it makes me think of 2 things:

1. Actually, we learn these particular rules of grammar in elementary school, not in high school or college...because we should really have them down by then.
2. Why do we even go to school for years? Why do we take all the subjects in school that we take? Why do we get grades for our assignments?

School exists to prepare us for the real world. School is to help us prepare for joining the global economy and contributing to society. We learn to represent ourselves well so an employer will hire us (in most cases), enabling us to support ourselves and our world. We're taught how everything works in this world. We learn how "its" and "it's" are different, and when to use each. We learn that the earth revolves around the sun. We learn that Beethoven went deaf and still managed to compose the "Ode to Joy." We learn the fundamental economic law of supply and demand. We learn how to find x in math equations that will benefit us in various real life situations, and much, MUCH more! And when we show others our own ignorance and apathy about our education, essentially dismissing it, we pretty much say "Screw you!" to our teachers. Being a teacher myself, I take offense to it, and will speak out when compelled to do so.

I guess it's not that bad that there were such big cuts into education, because if certain people's apathy about their own is any indication, all the funding we lost probably wasn't doing us much good anyway.