Grammar/spelling type rant...

[skylarsmammy]

Yes, it's Facebook related and I know I should deactivate the bloody thing as it winds me up. Today an old friend posted about how she has just started her new job as a primary school teacher. Lots of people wishing good luck etc...someone asked which school she had been placed in and a conversation ensued in which the newly qualified friend used the word 'their' when it should have been 'there'. I am gnawing my hand off to stop myself pointing out the mistake. She's a FUCKING teacher. Of PRIMARY aged kids. AIBU? If teachers can't spell what hope do we have?

I get far more miffed at people who post and then re-post to correct spelling mistakes. Aaa argh!

I mean Aaaargh!

See what I mean?

Ok then, die, dye and Di if you're going to be pedantic...

Now I'm annoyed at myself? Pointless.

'My mum's an angle'. All 360 degrees of her.

I'm highly educated, have taught etc etc, and I make errors on FB and the like. If thinking and typing fast its easy to do, and what does it matter? I know the difference between their/there/they're but I don't care if I occasionally write the wrong one. It doesn't mean I would teach the wrong one, or make the error in a formal setting.
YABU

I suppose some people are just not bothered about how other people judge their writing skills, maybe social media had bred that attitude? I die a bit inside if I make an obvious spelling/grammar mistake. Don't want folk thinking I'm thick. As an educated person I think it's pretty bad form.

Sounds a bit insecure to me. I'm quite comfortable in my own intelligence and literary skills, I don't need to proofread every off the cuff comment. So the odd typo/mistake gets through, what could it possibly matter?

I think you are being unreasonable and a bit daft. It's facebook. She was typing quickly. If she doesn't check when she's teaching that matters, otherwise it doesn't.

Plenty of people don't have great SPAG and have to check before they teach/do formal writing.

I don't care if people think I'm 'thick'. As an educated person, I judge people who make snap decisions based on something as poor an indicator as SPAG.

Actually, scratch that, it's got bugger all to do with being an educated person, I was just picking up on 'skylarsmummy's' terminology. As a reasonably sensible, secure, and not wankerish person, I judge people who make snap decisions.

literacy, even, not literary. Although I'm comfortable in those too.

See, doesn't matter. This is not a thesis or a classroom, its a forum. Same for FB.

I wonder how much it matters in a thesis, other than convention/ the possibility of annoying your examiners. After all, that's what minor corrections are there for.

(That hanging preposition annoys me more than their/there mix ups, somehow.)

I'm an old teacher, and when I began teaching, key skills were things like grammar, spelling, handwriting and arithmetic. I can do those. I could even write straight on a blackboard.
Look at the sodding curriculum now! So many bells and whistles and other priorities, including a level of literacy in ICT skills that I struggle with on a weekly basis. So I help with spelling and proof-reading and the youngsters help me with all the uploading, downloading and powerpoints.
It is a matter of what a school's priorities are, and what the current flavour of learning is at the Ministry.

It's not even called literacy any more, we've all had to revert to calling it English.

My supervisor was a red pen demon, hunting semi colons and replacing them with commas (or vice versa). And telling me off for split infinitives (until I explained that rule only actual applies in Latin, and not, as many pedants think, in English )

I know fellow English teachers who make such errors. Earlier this week, a colleague wrote the following on her board: Reviews - why are they wrote?

Split infinitives make me wince, but only out of habit. I don't think it's elegant to put adjectives/adverts between 'been' and the participle, either. But I think it's style rather than grammar at that stage, so it's personal taste.

@ why are they wrote.

I love a good split infinitive. Especially as a Star Trek fan.

Oh, it can be done with panache.

It's just, it generally isn't, IMO!

Wofflingon A teacher can be 'old', ICT literate and teach grammar and literacy skills.

And as to the OP.
Everyone makes the occasional mistake - a post on FB doesn't mean she doesn't know the difference between 'there' and 'their'.
FFS.

kim147 I can assure you that grammar has been alive and well in the last 17 years I've been teaching. You are reading the wrong paper.