To think teachers should be able to spell

[Brieandcamembert]

I have increasingly noticed recently teachers (often of primary age) who make very basic spelling and grammar errors. Surely having excellent basic skills in this area is an essential criteria for teaching it?

I'm really concerned that we are raising a generation who will have appalling literacy skills.

I have seen the classic "of / have" confusion
I have seen "been" used instead of "being"
I have also seen phonetically similar words interchanged with one another.

Unacceptable and lazy to teach students the wrong spellings.

The problem with saying it's unacceptable is what do you do about it?

Sack them? Good luck finding a replacement.

Provide additional time and training or supervise them more? There is just no time or resources to do that.

Calling all teachers who make mistakes lazy is just silly dick swinging.

I work in a school and edit the newsletter which contains articles written by teachers. I'm no expert but I am constantly shocked at the number of really basic errors made in these and the use of "text" language by the young teachers.

@mydogisthebest

A good few years ago a friend's son wrote in his English essay "he walked past the church". The teacher crossed out "past" and wrote "passed"!

My friend spoke to the teacher but the teacher insisted she was right

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

This is ludicrous, but entirely believable.

I was able to pick up on spelling mistakes even as a child at high school, which was 30 years ago so it isn't a new phenomenon, but yes, I think basic mistakes shouldn't happen and it makes me groan inwardly when I see it.

@user1471427614

It has been meantioned but to teach all teachers need at least a C in gcse english and maths and also have to pass a skills test in both

The pre-application skills tests have gone.

Calling all teachers who make mistakes lazy is just silly dick swinging

I’m just glad my pupils realise teachers are normal humans who make a mistake.

Anytime I give them a test back. I tell them to add up the scores to check I’ve done it correctly. I’ve marked 120 papers in one week, so I’m bound to have made a mistake at some point.

It would irritate me if I knew that a primary school teacher was weak on spelling. No matter what the cause, part of their job is to teach correct spelling, so what hope is there for the children, if the teacher can't spell?

Just joined. I don't know what YABU means but I agree entirely. I recall watching a documentary on racism which featured a teacher that spelt 'weird' as 'wierd', She was also shocked to learn that a black person bled red blood when they cut themselves!
My son studied law under Professor Whittle, the trans activist, whose spelling was worse than my 9 year old niece.

I used to think like this. Our previous HT had impeccable grammar. The school still went to shit behaviour wise. Our new HT has some questionable grammar but that woman has behaviour sorted. I know which one I would rather have leading a school.

Unless you are comfortable with people being discriminated against because of a disability, then yes you must accept this.

People are justly 'discriminated against' all the time when it comes to jobs for which they just aren't suitable - whether it's a result of laziness, general lack of ability or genuine disability. The DVLA discriminates against blind people - as well as those with various other health and medical conditions - by point-blank refusing to allow them to drive for a living, or indeed at all. A construction company would discriminate against a wheelchair user by refusing to consider them as a scaffolder.

If somebody is using your disability as an excuse and not making reasonable adjustments to enable you to do the job well, that is outrageous and illegal; but not everybody can do everything, even if it's absolutely through no fault, action or deliberate choice of their own. I don't think it's unreasonable to acknowledge this.

Teachers are massively overworked and make mistakes.
I teach physics. I’m pretty academic and have a phd. I wrote on the board last week
2 x 3 = 5
My year 12s reacted with amusement and disgust in equal measure. (I do know that 2x3=/=5)
I also spelt a word wrong in another lesson (forgotten what the word was now but the TA corrected me.)
We’re not robots. We’re human. We’re tired. We can’t be perfect.

I've noticed this for years now. I agree. It's more the grammar than the spelling that bothers me.

@TibetanTerrah

Teachers are completely overworked. I've never had a problem with SPAG but sometimes when I write something quickly my brain rushes ahead to the next thing and my hand tries to catch up, so I end up writing the wrong there/their/theyre for example.

This. I know how to spell, form sentences correctly, use grammatical devices such as parenthesis etc and teach the children to a high standard evidenced by their class work and SATs results BUT I’m usually juggling one million things at once and when writing things to parents (usually one of many pieces of paperwork on top of planning, marking and actually teaching) I make mistakes I don’t realise I am making as I’m going so quickly.

YANBU
My own primary education has left me feeling very confused RE grammar and spelling.
There should be a grammar exam before being allowed to teach, especially for primary and English. It's a horrible cycle, you end up with adults who are very confused. Those same teachers I am sure were taught that way as I was. Train and test teachers in it before they are allowed to teach it and things will improve!
If they don't pass (yes, even if dyslexic, not everyone can do every job), then you can't become a teacher.

They should also increase salary, given it will be harder to grt into teaching. We shouldn't have to accept inadequate teaching.

I was work shadowing a functional skills tutor, who 'corrected' a learner for the spelling of "bear/bare". The learner had to choose which of those two words went in the following sentence: I asked him to with me. The learner, had correctly selected bear. I cringed when the tutor said "no, you have that wrong, it is bare". There are no excuses for poor spelling, when you are a teacher.

I work with a colleague who is a terrible speller. I taught her English - she's always been terrible. That comes with the territory as she's dyslexic. But she's a bloody good teacher of her subject. Marking takes her ages and she can't do anything off the cuff on the board without making mistakes - but the kids know why and will tell her, kindly.

In any case, no spoken language can ever be fully standardised so notions about what language "should" look like really do have to move with the times.

I used to think like this. Our previous HT had impeccable grammar. The school still went to shit behaviour wise. Our new HT has some questionable grammar but that woman has behaviour sorted. I know which one I would rather have leading a school.

Schools need a range of staff, with appropriate skills for their individual roles - to enable them to function well. A HT, especially one with a good secretary who can correct their mistakes in written correspondence, doesn't necessarily need to have perfect grammar. Neither do the caretaker or the dinner ladies or the woodwork teachers.

Somebody whose job is teaching language does need excellent language skills, even if they're useless with a paintbrush, or a hockey stick, or at cooking.

Honestly I'm tempted to get the CGP grammar workbooks year 1 to 6 and work through them myself.
It is quite ridiculous really! If I bought those for my children, they'd get a better grammar education than from teachers.

Constantly battling with whether I should homeschool

@annabell22

Some teachers have dyslexia- it doesn't mean that they shouldn't become a teacher.

But it does mean that the school should have adjustments in place such as checking their communications, and particularly checking things like classroom presentations. Given, in particular, the current emphasis on SpaG in SATs and GCSEs, it's important that they should not be giving their pupils the impression that "could of" is correct.

@CallmeHendricks

Your OP might have carried more weight with me had you not split an infinitive in the first sentence.

I came on to say this.

OP I do agree.

@annabell22

Some teachers have dyslexia- it doesn't mean that they shouldn't become a teacher.

In my experience as a teacher, young teachers have increasingly poor written and spoken English.

But it does mean that the school should have adjustments in place such as checking their communications, and particularly checking things like classroom presentations
Who do you propose checks my colleague's 26 "classroom presentations" and 200+ marked books a week? And when?

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

Some teachers have dyslexia- it doesn't mean that they shouldn't become a teacher.

I wouldn't want to exclude anybody on the basis of something that can be worked around, but are there not sometimes circumstances that might mean that a certain job just isn't for you? Should being tone deaf stop you from being a music teacher or orchestra conductor? Should anxiety and poor spatial awareness stop you from driving buses or lorries for a living? Should being colour blind stop you from getting a job in the Dulux development labs? Should being 6'6" stop you from being a jockey? Should being 4'6" tall stop you from being a professional basketball player?

I do personally think that being able to spell, punctuate and use grammar properly is essential for somebody whose job it is to teach it to others - especially at primary level, where they may never have heard/learned words that you introduce to them before; secondary children and upwards will have experience and better critical skills and thus more likelihood of recognising that a small part of what you're teaching them might not be correct.

I never judge tradespeople who produce invoices with spelling mistakes in the least, as that isn't the skill for which I hired them; but then I wouldn't in any way hold it against a teacher if they couldn't rewire a house or tile a bathroom, whereas I would seriously have an issue with a plumber who connected up the hot and cold taps the wrong way around.

I agree with @WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

Children are only as good as the people who teach them. Good SPAG should be considered essential for teachers, and I'm surprised anyone would suggest otherwise

When DS was in primary he brought home a (real, published, printed) book entitled 'How The Elephant Got It's Trunk'.

@Nicholethejewellery

I think it's just the direction we're travelling in, SPAG isn't seen as being that important anymore because most real-world tasks will be done on computers so there will be the option of a spell-checker.

It's pretty common for school leavers to have very poor spelling and grammar skills when they enter the workforce so I'm not surprised teachers are showing this trait too.

It's best not to worry, it's just a sign of the general gradual decline in standards.

This is simply incorrect. There is major emphasis on SpaG in the current curriculum, to the extent that pupils can be marked down for grammatical and spelling errors. That is why teachers need to model correct usage.

Correct this:

Dear Parants
Sorry but you're childs class will be closed this week and home learning set as we do'nt have enough teachers to call on to cover.
It seems there all disillusioned with the job and have fucked off to do something where their not constantly criticized.
Yours
Head teacher