Irregardless is not a word. Neither are lite, nite, ain’t, thru, Xmas, and a whole slew of other words that have found their way into our language. Daily newspapers are not necessarily a leader in the use of these misdemeanors of English, but their articles and feeds from the wire services usually contain a fair number of them.

I’ve heard the argument that, “It’s in the dictionary, so it must be right.” That’s not necessarily true. You’ll find all kinds of non-words, including numerous obscene and vulgar entries in unabridged (and some abridged) dictionaries simply because they are in common use. That don’t make it good. Or neat-o. And before you start picking this column to shreds, remember that this is the “speak” that many people use today.

By the way, you shouldn’t ever start a sentence with a connective (but, or, and), but there they are anyways. And there is no “s” on the end of anyway. Of course, any way you look at it, anyway is one word when you feel like making it one word, I guess. Double negatives? I won’t even go there.
TV and print advertising employ lots of common slang. Unfortunately, children accept the media as a substitute English teacher. “I heard it on TV last night.” To make matters worse, the language is mispronounced in a horrendous fashion. I once heard someone sing a song that I swear sounded like, “There’s no mayonnaise in Ireland.” Turns out it was, “No Man is an Island.”

This is all about the quality of education. The public schools are so bloated with administrators that you probably can’t expect all of the teachers (who make less than the fat cats) to get really interested in doing a good job. Then there’s the matter of tenure. Tenure is a sort of philosophical thing that means the longer you hang around, the less likely you are to be fired for not doing your job.

There’s the rub. The schools continue to ask for additional money for increased salaries and new buildings, but I see no evidence of any improvement in the quality of education. For example, how often do you see these words used incorrectly?

their, there and they’re

affect and effect

accept and except

its and it’s

led and lead

your and you’re

all right (alright is still not all right)

Several others come to mind, but you get the point.

My high school English class had about 40 students in it. Compare that to today’s 25 (or fewer) students. The school was beat-up, the teachers were underpaid (and most of them were downright homely), but my education was adequate. You’d think that with today’s smaller classes, higher salaries and newer schools, we’d get more bang for our buck.

Sadly, it isn’t so. Spending more money doesn’t seem to work. That’s precisely why I voted against an increase in taxes and the special bond issue. I think that most students today should be able to spell Sri Lanka and find it on a world map. Most of them can’t do either.