To expect good grammar from a year three teacher?

[MrsFC]

I live in zone four of East London, and while I am originally not from that area and have a different accent, DC, DP, CM, exDH and all DC's friends do, and have a fairly pronounced East London accent.

Now: I have NOTHING against an accent from anywhere in the country, I really don't. But I DO have issues with the bad grammar that can sometimes come with it, for example:

'we done this at school today Mummy'
'Where is the book we was reading Mummy'
'I didn't eat nuffink for lunch today'

I have spent the past five years patiently correcting DC and explaining basic correct grammar to him. I also explain that while lots of the grown ups he knows speak incorrectly, he must not correct them, but must listen to how his teacher and I speak. I am lucky in that he is a competent and avid reader and so I have been encouraging him to read Harry Potter books to try and instill it in him further (top tip - if you want your son to read Harry Potter, buy the Lego DS Game - it worked for me!)

Anyway - I digress. I went to pick up DS from school yesterday and they came out of a different gate.When we found them his new teacher said to me:

'I'm sorry you wasn't told'

I was taken aback and mentioned it to another Mum friend of mine with a child in the same year(I could only mention it to this one friend as the other Mums probably wouldn't have noticed TBH). She smiled and said I was being a bit snobby.

What do you think? And what would you do, if anything?

Modre, I did this with our local newspaper. I felt like a pedantic arse as soon as I had dropped in the post box, although the editor did write to me apologising. He even said he was 'greatful' I had pointed the errors out. I gave up.

missed out 'the letter' in the last post. Whoops. Will step down from my high horse now for fear of making further errors.

Roomonthebroom, I threaten to take a red pen to our local rag every time I see it. I am glad I am not the only one

I completely understand that estuary English is a dialect, as is Liverpudlian. But you can still speak with an accent but with the correct words in the correct places. I also understand that you can speak one way and write another, but I think that year 3 is too soon to start, I think at aged 7 they need to be still learning the basics, not the complexities.

But I DO I take on board what people have said though about DS correcting his teacher, and I think I'm going to say he shouldn't say anything. Hopefully the poster who said that it could have been a one off genuine mistake is right and I won't hear it again. But if I do I think I'll have to put it in writing to the Head.

Very very glad to see that most people think I'm NBU though. Thanks.

no you don't understand it is a dialect if you think it doesn't involve the grammar as well as the accent. an accent is to do with the way you pronounce words but a dialect is usually a lot more than that eg all the examples you have read on this thread
using 'learn' where others might use 'teach'
I done it instead of I did it

in the UK, dialect and accent are bound up with class - hence the horrorshow

My mum says "you did good"!

Drives me fucking crazy because bless her little heart, she is full of (unjust)compliments so I hear it a lot (that's mums for you)

I have to bite my tongue hard.

I had a similar issue with my DS TA in reception.

All down to the pronunciation of "h"

DS kept saying haitch and that he was told that's the correct way to do it.

I actually wrote in his reading book about this and asked them to stop saying haitch to him.

I do realise this may be seen as a petty issue and that the BBC have addressed this and now on radio 4, some presenters are apparently allowed/encouraged to say haitch.

Oh yes forgot to say that YANBU

lol at the haitch thing - you seen the mitchell and webb sketch about it?

p.s. thanks to DS3 I have a mutilated, sticky keyboard and I have also had a large glass of wine, hence my lack of punctuation and general typos

No sanfairy, I haven't.

Will look on youtube.

In my post I forgot to own up to having corrected the spelling of DD's Reception teacher (before she moved to my school). The activity areas were set up and on one was an activity relating to what I correctly assumed were dinosaurs. I hesitated for a split second just in case dinasours was the intended spelling.... then found a whiteboard pen (it was on an individual whiteboard) and changed it. The teacher saw me and said she was glad I'd done it, apparently the word hadn't looked right but she'd got sidetracked and not gone back to it.

MrsFC, I'm glad you've changed your mind about encouraging your DS to correct his teacher. I think that Y3 is about the right time to help children understand that there are differences in the way we speak and write. I know that my 5-year-old moderates her speech when in the company of adults and the writing she produces in games with friends is far more 'casual' than anything she produces for an adult audience, many of the Y6 children I've taught use text abbreviations in notes to one another but are perfectly capable of using more standard English to convey a similar written message to me.

If your DS's teacher uses the phrase, "I'm sorry you wasn't told..." when in conversation with you again perhaps that's the opportunity you need in order to raise with her your hope that your DS will be expected to use standard English in his writing.

Ooh, LeQ. Really had you down as an RP-speaker. Quite charmed by the whole E Mids revelation. Nice accent.

Haven't read whol thread but yanbu.

I would be absoutely horrified.
I abhor bad grammar.

I am SO glad that I am not the only one who gets irritated by teachers who cannot speak and write "properly".

YADNBU

A couple of years ago, DD1 was in the reception class (i.e. aged 5) and the teacher decided that she needed extra help with literacy (she was average, and this is a school that wants the children to all be absolutely excellent as the head is ofstead obsessed...) so a letter was sent home explaining this. The letter was from the literacy team and was peppered with spelling and grammatical errors. When I returned the letter (having marked it in red ink!) I was told that no other parent had ever complained (have since found out that isn't true) and that the letter was the handout provided by the literacy teaching aid they were using...!!!

I am in the East Midlands, yet from the South East - I don't have an estuary accent, but I'm not overly posh. I do however keep being told that I am posh by the locals!!! Presumably this is because I don't say to the children " play nice" etc etc

neuroticrobotic, "you did good" is much better than, "you done good"

When we're away and have to use supermarkets which state "ten items or less" at the checkout I tend to lose it.

It's ten items or fewer

Fewer apples / items

Less flour / water

Simple.

Yes, you're right, an accent is not the same as dialect. Apologies. But as LQ says, an accent doesn't mean bad grammar. Actually, now I think about it, the teacher in question didn't have a particularly strong accent. Where does that come in the debate I wonder?

I have the same issue with aitch too. I didn't know the BBC had authorised it. That's a depressing thought...

Yes MaMM, that is certainly true.

She lives in North America where the word good is overused.

How is your food? It's good!

How are you today? I'm good!

What's up? It's all good!

FFS

This can't just annoy me, surely?