Mulroy thinks society should be grateful to the Greeks for having invented the alphabet. However, he likes to stress that the Greeks invented the alphabet, NOT written language. The alphabet was a simplified way of representing phonics or sounds instead of various symbols with complex meanings that most people could not understand except the scholars. It was evident that the alphabet was a positive thing after its creation. The Greeks began to thrive in all aspects of their life not just writing. Having a written system allowed them to advance more in mathematics and science because more complex and abstract ideas could be recorded thanks to the simplified method of writing; the alphabet. The Greeks new writing system was adopted by the Romans. And, the alphabet and modified forms of it continued to spread globally. If it wasn’t for the Greeks and their idea to make written works more accessible to everyone it probably wouldn’t be possible for you to read what I’m writing now. I hope more people can appreciate books. Just think of it this way, if no one ever read anything and continued to live ignorantly till present day we wouldn’t be surfing the net or texting people. What I thought was most surprising was that “Contemporary American educators” are unable to see how crucial grammar is to society and are “mystified” by those who do emphasize the importance of grammar.
Maybe phrasing it as ‘unable to see’ is kind of strong. Now, I think maybe they’re saying that people naturally understand grammar and can use it effectively so the tiny specifics on the rules of how grammar should be used is unnecessary since people have managed to communicate to each other successfully since the beginning of mankind.
Is that it?
