Frazz by Jef Mallett for April 14, 2013

Yes.

And by his statements it discourages the other children to learn and keeping them from gaining the benefits of an education. Whch helps you gain a job in the first place.

Caulfield will make a good politician. He can aggrandize many options, but never reach a solution

What a great line! The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Most kids learn that early on.

Best description of economics I ever heard was “quantitative psychology”.

For the first time since I started reading Frazz, I felt that Caulfield is being a little pain.I have had wiseacres in my class when I was a teacher. Up to a point, you enjoy them – they are called bright and witty then. They liven up the class. Brings out new viewpoints.But after a certain point, they are being unfair to those kids who are a bit less quicker in picking things up. They feel stupid and close down.

They actually do diagram sentence structure. And I doubt he learned how to do it as a preschooler.

And by the way, supply is generally adjusted to satisfy demand, rather than vice versa.

Well, look at it this way: Caulfield’s been repeating this grade for at least ten years now (note that “Frazz” received an award in 2003, so the strip must have been in print at that time), and while his body hasn’t grown at all, his mind has now matured to the point of a college sophomore. I can see how having to repeat sentence diagramming yet again just might be getting to him.

If Dante were writing today, I’m pretty sure he’d add a bolgia in which the condemned spend eternity living the same year of their life over and over and over. It would be reserved for the people who write TV sitcoms, of course.

what was the point of diagramming a sentence?

Why do you diagram sentences, Caulfield?To learn the basic mechanics of the English language, perhaps

And just perhaps there are other ways to learn that don’t involve diagrams.

My English teachers never covered diagraming sentences so I had to learn by reading and emulating the masters – Wells, Silverberg, Heinlien and Asimov, et al. What sounds right to me seems to match the formal rules of grammar embodied in the syntax of the English language. I am no William Buckley but I think I have done OK.

Although I may not know the proper names for all the syntactical units of the language or be able to clearly define the difference between a direct and indirect object, I do know how to construct a proper sentence and when to use “your” vs “you’re” properly as well as “there”, “their” and "they’re; “between” and “among”; “who” and “whom”; “good” and “well” and a host of other such “mysteries” that seem to have escaped the capabilities of those who, supposedly, have learned sentence diagraming. (Unfortunately, I also tend to write long sentences!)

The difference between “your” and “you’re” is so simple and easy to understand, yet their misuse is so prevalent, that one really has to question an educational system that allows such travesties to continue.Now if this post does not set me up as a target for dart practice, I don’t know what would!Namaste’, Art

They don’t do that in schools any more. Pity. It’s tough teaching grammar to graduate students who should have learned it in elementary school. Especially when they will be responsible for teaching it to others……

Poor kid has the law of supply and demand backwards. Supply adjusts to demand, not the other way around.

I never tire of the interaction between Caufield and Mrs. Olsen. In much later years, he will give a touching eulogy at her funeral.

BTW, Lio and Calvin are also exceptional today. Sunday funnies the way they used to be!!

I see the grammar used by first year college students and wonder if theya re still teaching grammar in elementary and secondary schools.

“so that you don’t sound like the a huge percentage of the posters”…If you had diagrammed that partial sentence, you’d have noticed a couple of problems with it.

To many distractions in the classroom, why teachers have a hard time educating children today, can’t discipline only send them off to the principles office.

1. I just had to look up the word “fungible.” Who says comics aren’t educational?

2. Why doesn’t Mrs. Olsen just tell Caulfield to shut up? Like what my teachers did to me?

3. And while we’re talking about English: there should be special punishment for people who write “could of”, “should of” and “would of,” instead of “could have”, “should have” and “would have.”

@Joe Waskiewicz: “The principal stood by his principles !”

@Notsoastute; “A calvary charge”..Admission tickets to see the crucifiction??

The teacher’s grammatical error- “You will prioritize it based on me demanding it.” Should be “You will prioritize it based on MY demanding it.” (Gerunds require the possessive form.) We won’t quibble today about “prioritize” which is in common use but not the best choice of words.

He was having fun-gible with the assignment.

Want to learn proper English? Study a foreign language. You will be the better for it.

The teacher would be better off explaining why diagramming wasn’t busywork than just telling Caulfield to do it.

Like Caulfield, I hate doing pointless things. Even a “Because it is part of your grade, and if you don’t get good grades you’re going to get in trouble with your parents and you won’t go to college,” would work.

Also, can someone please explain to me what sentence diagramming is? Is it the bubble thing we did in middle school that I never understood?

LOL the big problem was trying to figure which line came off of which line and the direction. It did teach structure though and like most education its importance is not readily apparent until a later time.

You are still missing the point. I wasn’t trying to “be right”. I was making a deliberate, silly, non-judgemental comment. My comment about two targets being harder to miss should have tipped you off. Take it as easy as you can…

I hated diagramming sentences in grammar school and felt all mixed up about it. However I won prizes for writing essays in jr. hgh and high school; my freshman English teacher exempted me from the strict rules he gave the rest of the class, because he knew I was experimenting; and eventually I earned a doctoral degree, defending my dissertation on second draft. I also taught high school and college English on occasion, and used some very divergent teaching methods. Most of the students did better work in my class than in others. lauraolphotog

Economics 101, the supply curve and the demand curve exist indepently of each other, and the PRICE will adjust according to the equalibruim point.

Which is why so many parents pay for grades, or at least base allowance on behavior…..

Actually, it would be up to caufield to raise the supply to keep up with the demand, that’s how it works in this country.

I really wish that, unless the comments are truly offensive, as opposed to just annoying, the self-appointed censors would leave them intact. It is very irritating to read responses to posts which do not appear.