h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ref 'children swear just like the rest of us',


I wish I could remember the background to the following (which was from an Editorial in the Daily Mail, UK in 2001), but it must have been something to do with teaching swearing in schools. It said,

I thought they already taught swearing in schools. Children these days all seem so good at it. But, of course, when you think about it that cannot be right. If they actually taught bad language then few of their pupils would be able to use it, just as hardly any of them can spell or add up, let alone multiply. In the same way, after 30 years of sex education, the young seem mystified by the connection between intercourse and babies. So perhaps we should all rejoice that rude words are now being put on the National Curriculum. After a few years of this, everyone will be as hopeless at spelling expletives as French Connection, and possibly unable to pronounce them as well.

lol. You may have a point. Of course the prime teachers for swearing in a child's life are most likely to be the adults who he spends the most time around. Maybe dad drops a can of vegetables on his foot, or smashes his thumb with his hammer for example. Little one's have big ears for what adults say.