to correct a word written by the teacher in my ds' spelling book?

[PeppermintPasty]

Gawd, I have actually just done it anyway, but I have the fear (slightly). Not the fear of being wrong I am never wrong, more the feeling that correcting the teacher is not quite the done thing.

Anyway, she wrote "wack" for my son to copy. Now, I have never heard of whack (I'm presuming) being spelled this way, so I googled it and it does exist, albeit as some kind of American, tut slang, as in "She looked wack". -This is a compliment, apparently.

Whilst writing this, I have realised that there are two strands to this AIBU. First, as above. The second is AIBU to be such an old gimmer that I do not realise that street lingo is all da rage. In Cornwall. Amongst primary school teachers.

Go on then, tell me what you think.

Teachers do not correct every spelling in every bit of writing a child produces. They will generally focus on a learning objective and correct that. This is good practice. I am sure the teachers in question were able to spell horse.

OP, if the standard of spelling in your child's class is usually fine, why assume there is anything other than a solitary typo or mistake in this case?

The dreadful initiative that they spell nonsense words? What is that?

Or do you mean the rather sensible initiative of testing a child's phonic ability by giving them nonsense words to sound out?

I totally agree about the child making mistakes.

In fairness, it must be human error. FGS though, human spelling error in a child's spelling book? I suppose it's quite impressive*

*it's not.

Honestly, you try running a classroom full of children and never ever making a mistake like writing a number incorrectly or missing out a word from a sentence.

I agree with you HC. My op was angled towards the way it makes me feel "correcting" a teacher, which I'm sure says a lot about me. I like my ds' teacher, and school, and I have a great deal of respect for them.

This mistake did take me aback though, but it was only after I instinctively corrected it that I thought, well, here's a thing, correcting a teacher.

the school by me is offering "soccer school" It is - apparently - suitable for "beginers" I have written to both the soccer school and the primary school. The primary school have told me they have had "one or two comments" and the soccer school hadn't noticed.

One of my DS's secondary teachers once wrote the amount of work was not 'exceptable' WTF?! I took great pleasure in correcting that statement.

Have you seen this massive spelling mistake - ouch

Bad spelling school - ouch

'A teacher shouldn't make mistakes'.

I teach my class that everyone makes mistakes, no one knows everything and everyone can learn new things. It makes the children more willing to have a go and try new things rather than be scared they will get things wrong.

Hmmmm I'm not sure on this one.

My class noticed a spelling mistake in a book I'd produced for them today. They had been struggling with a concept we are doing so I spent all day Sunday making a work book to break it down further. We were going through it today and one of the children noticed the mistake. If it comes back tomorrow with a parent having corrected the spelling it will be the last time I spend my weekend producing stuff above what I have to to help their children get higher grades.

However, as this was a spelling exercise I think it is really bad that the teacher didn't check it. Not sure I would correct it as it would be awful for the teacher - I would speak to her instead - written in the book might make your child feel he can't trust his teacher so I think it is an issue best addressed privately.

I would have corrected it.

My DH used to correct my DC's French teacher almost every week the teacher was a native French speaker and we were living in a French speaking country but his French was crap. The French teachers even made mistakes on typed up worksheets.

See I don't get this idea that its better to go in to the school and make the teacher take time out of her day and be told she'd made a spelling mistake.
Surely putting the correct spelling for your child to learn and not making a fuss is better. Surely that's less embarassing for the teacher

I've corrected my son's book. It was a science statement/fact copied off the board and she had ticked it despite it being totally wrong. Anyhow I put a line through it and wrote the correct statement. She obviously noticed and then ticked my correct statement.

Oh teacherandguideleader, and ketchup, I'm not advocating the acme of perfection. However I do agree, the point here is that it is a spelling book, which we're all saying of course.

It is also interesting to me that although I knew deep down that the word was wrong, I still googled the meaning. Mind you, back in the day I would have looked it up in, get this, a "dictionary" . So I suppose that's just me.

All I did was cross it out and write "whack" beneath it so my ds could copy it, and I certainly didn't make a big deal of it to him.

I'm being far too reasonable for AIBU, aren't I? Damn.

It shouldn't be part of the phonics non-words thing. That is to assess if a child can identify and read phonic sounds. Nothing to do with writing them.

We don't always correct every spelling error in a child's work. If there are a lot then it can have a negative impact on a child who may well have been trying really hard concentrating on different success criteria. Not exactly encouraging to receive a piece of work back covered in corrections after all. If the spelling attempt is phonetically correct than some - unless part of the success criteria - we may leave.

And I wouldn't go in to school about this. I am a mouthy git too, but I wouldn't do that.

Sorry, YABU: the teacher didn't make a mistake, you have.

The American slang term 'wack' meaning 'rubbish' is spelled without an 'h': www.google.co.uk/#q=wack&safe=active

That said, YANBU to draw attention to it as it's a VERY strange word to introduce to primary school children in England.

Ah snickersnacker, are you my boy's teacher?

Hopefully things like the school with the incorrect spelling of catergory on the sign, are down to an error in the process - ie the signwriter misread the written order, not that the school actually spelt it wrong?

near me their is an alarm shop with a big banner advertising bugler alarms. and I once worked in a school that almost issued 500 homework dairies - the front covers had to be redone on the day before the kids came back!

Why always assume the worse?

MN always assumes a teacher is incompetent when errors occur. They never think "Oops! S/He missed that one when checking!"

You see - I would always assume that it was a mistype/write that had passed through when it was checked. This is often even more the case when doing things in a rush or late at night, or when tired from a day's work. We are all capable of it. I've never met an adult yet who hasn't made a bit of a mistake and not noticed it when checking.

So my response would be to have a quick word at drop off, more along the lines of "Eek! Thought I'd best point it out, but there's a spelling error on that list you sent out. Thought you'd want to know." and think nothing more of it.

I've done this for fellow teaching staff. Likewise its been pointed out for me if errors have happened. It can then be promptly sorted out and without any of the passive aggressive red pen nonsense.

Do send a note- I never mind if I've made a mistake so a typo- I genuinely though pharoah was spelt like that for years till a kind mum put me right! Might it have been meant to be wrack? (Btw am usually a good speller, and when chdn copy word lists to learn (am old, this isn't current practice!) I always check them before they take them home!).

If love a homework dairy!

Peppermint - I was not quoting you! Another poster said that teachers should not make mistakes!
I agree that the spellings should be correct but sometimes mistakes happen and if they are writing a few in at a time then it is easily done. I don't mind if people correct me so if a parent came and said this to me I would apologise and suggest it was an oversight. These things happen! So long as it not a regular thing then I would not be too worried.

TravlinColour

Wacky as in Wacky Backy?

That would explain the poor spelling.

Spelling mistakes should be corrected in blue pen (as per our school) NEVER red . We don't do that these days.

And Teachers are only human. Sometimes your brain is not thinking straight when you've seen word spelled a variety of ways all day. It is easy to get confused !! As long as it is not a common occurrence that things are spelled incorrectly