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While volunteering in my children's school in Colorado, I found many errors within the materials I was asked to copy and collate. I always pointed them out to the teacher and asked if she'd like me to correct the master or just throw out the entire bunch. I also made it a point to bring up every spelling and grammatical error in the flyers that came home. I believe it was in late October when the principal first called me and asked if I'd like to personally edit everything that went home to the students. As she wasn't being sarcastic, I enthusiastically took her up on it.
She did mention that most parents don't notice these things - either because they had a poor education themselves, they have gotten lazy over the years (haven't we all?!) or because they just don't read the notices that go home.
I'd say though that it DOES matter (a lot!) to those of us who DO read it all!
I have this same experience. It's really bad. It really doesn't matter whether it's notes home to parents, homework assignments, project outlines, the school newsletter - it seems every time something comes home from school there are grammatical or spelling typos. It's not just the school either, though... I see them on CNN and other online news sources. I find them in the newspapers. They are everywhere. I don't know if things have always been this bad or if it's just a recent surge due to the over-dependence most people have on spell correctors and word doc programs which dumb things down for us. ?
It might also be the increasing homogenization of the cultures. Things such as the internet and greater ease of travel making life here truly more global. My husband is half-Asian and grew up living in Asia and the Middle East. In the countries where he grew up things were spelled phonetically. It didn't matter how you spelled something so long as it sounded the same each time. For example, in Thailand... sometimes you might see "village" and other times you might see "viledge" and other times "villedge" and so on. All ways are considered correct, because they all sound the same. Even English-speaking Thai people like my husband and his family. It's bizarre. To this day my husband has to really work at spelling the American way... he still has a tendency to spell things as they sound rather than their true English spelling, even though he's spoken English all his life and considers English his first native language.
America has always been welcoming to foreigners, and with foreign cultures bringing their diversity here - our language constantly evolves. We've taken from the way that many Black people talk, the way that the Italians and Jews speak, and perhaps the laid-back phonetic mindset of Asian and middle eastern cultures? So many of our words in English come from French or Greek or other languages which are much older than our own. It's pretty fascinating when you really dig deep down and study what's going on. You might find yourself having greater compassion and understanding for those who speak or write differently than you do. Doesn't mean you have to allow your children to take on these traits, but to explore them can be a lesson in life's little realities in this country - even in this world - in itself.
I realize this is an OLD thread but I know NK still posts regularly so I am wondering how it turned out.
Oddly enough, I didn't find this thread by looking through the parenting forums; I found it because I Googled the phrase "child's teacher poor grammar". Why? Well, my older son just came in here laughing in an exasperated way, to tell me three things our 10 year old DD just said.
First, she was commenting on something he was doing and said, while laughing, "You look like the guy in this commercial I seen yesterday"
Then, when he and her brother both said something to her that she found funny, she responded with "You all both CRAZY!"
Then she told the cat "You best get off the counter!"
New teacher started in December and we have absolutely zero doubts as to where this is coming from. Normally DD's speech is a bit overly formal, and all of this is new, and not coming from peers. So thankful we are moving this summer but in the meantime, we're just going to have a talk with DD about how it's not always best to mimic speech after someone just because they are an adult.
I do wonder if we should say something to administration though.. or just let it be since there isn't much left of the school year anyway, and like I said, we are moving so she'll be in a different school regardless.
I haven't looked up the answer yet so here's my shot at the problem:
48/2(9+3) =
9+3 = 12
2*12 = 24
48/24= 2
Oh wait - wrong problem.
Teachers and their lessons, got it -
Thing is, everyone has verbal idiosyncracies, including teachers. But when they are teaching grammar, they need to be cognizant of their own habits, and either correct them or point them out to the students so they can learn from them.
If they aren't even aware that they have incorrect speaking habits, then those habits need to be pointed out to them, and then they can correct or use as study material. If a teacher continuously says "Yeah them boys gotta get outta here" then the teacher can explain to the students, "I say this incorrectly. Who can point out what's wrong with it?" And write that down on the board, verbatim.
You can't expect anyone to speak or write perfect English all the time. But you should be able to expect teachers who are teaching language studies, to know their own weaknesses in the subject and either control the weaknesses or use them to their advantage in teaching.
Order of operations would give 288 for the math problem.
As for not approving of a teacher's grammar skills or ability to speak "proper English" (totally subjective btw). Your children spend a couple hundred hours with this person out of the thousands and thousands of hours they spend with you. Hell, most kids spend more time with their favorite characters on TV than with an individual teacher. Are we worried children are going to end up speaking like Cookie monster or Elmo as adults?
My daughter had a teacher who insisted over and over again throughout a year of biology that sharks were mammals like dolphins. She even marked my daughter wrong on a test in 8th grade bio. Despite this woman's lack of knowledge about something I see as beyond simple, my daughter does know that most sharks are poikilothermic and a very few are endothermic and none are mammals. Why? Because ultimately I, her mother, am a much more influential person in her life.
I also used that influence to teacher her somethings even more important than grammar and science, compassion and tolerance. When she came home complaining about being marked wrong on a test something she shouldn't have, I asked her "does it really matter?", will it change your life in a positive way for me to go down to the school and embarrass the teacher? She agreed it wouldn't. So kudos, to all of you parents who are so much more clever about X than the teacher.
Sometimes its more important for parents to be wise than clever.
That's fine for the kids with educated parents who can spend hours reteaching their child, but what about all the disadvantaged children not forturnate enough to have educated parents? They will be deprived an education because of the incompetent teachers.
What other career besides teaching should incompetence be accepted?
Did I really just read you to say that proper English is totally subjective??!!!? Please tell me that I misunderstood you.
Is it center or centre?
What about these two sentences below?
He seemed to be angry.
He seemed angry.
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