Should I correct a teacher?

[Sadgirlonatrain]

In my son's recent geography homework, one of the questions on the sheet referred to the decline of coal mining in the North East.

"How would this of effected the area?"

No wonder the use of 'would of' is so widespread now, never mind the incorrect use of 'effected.'

Would you say anything to the school?

Everyone will be calling for his resignation soon, what a ridiculous storm in a teacup … the world has gone mad!

I do think some people, including me, have made the suggestion. There is no reason to escalate. What do they think the Head is going to do? Bring the teacher in for grammar lessons?

I would and have for the same reason.

Primary school homework that said 'Would maybe of been better to write this..'

I sent it back with 'Would have maybe ....'

We also had a letter that was sent home asking for book donations of a particular type as they are 'very sort after'

Signed by the 'School Literacy Lead'

As a teacher I find this unacceptable. We all have typos occasionally, but on a document, on homework in school- no way.
Teachers are supposed to be educated to degree level and be literate. I have also seen some shockers in my time and I do wonder how on earth they manage to get into education in the first place.
I would be mentioning it to the teacher concerned.

I think I’d raise it via a note to the teacher.

Spoken English “I woulda dun tha’” is different- it’s more accent based, and I’d be telling DC off if they were rude about it. But written English should be grammatically correct in schools (aside from works of literature that’s deliberately been written with errors or as spoken).

I would complain but quite politely, the teacher is illiterate! Would love to know if this is a State school or Private. Having taught at a Private school I know that I would have been hauled over the coals if I had made such a mistake!

In my experience, that particular mistake (and I acknowledge that it's a very common one) is only made by people who don't know the correct way to structure that phrase. So people seem to either always get it wrong, or never.

Of course, the ability to engage and enthuse students is important, as are kindness and fairness, etc., but it isn't an either/or scenario. Students can also be engaged and enthused by teachers whose grasp of the language in which they are teaching is sound.

Aside from the children who wholly rely on their teachers' ability to use correct spelling and grammar to take their cues from them, there are also children who, typically by virtue of being avid, advanced readers, will recognise these errors and have their general confidence in the teacher shaken as an unfortunate but understandable consequence. The children at both ends of the spectrum have a right to be taught by educators that they can have that confidence in.

@MaryMcCarthy , too true.

A friend of a dd is in HR, and freely admits that when faced with a mass of very similar CVs, she begins the ‘weeding’ by ditching any with basic SPAG errors. And this is a relatively young person, not a hyper-pernickety old fartette.

Thankfully, I don’t think this will happen as it’s not a mistake that Americans and others tend to make afaik. Which means that in turn speakers of English as a foreign language will continue to learn could have, would have, etc.

Poor spelling and grammar is a problem in this country, but I don’t think this will become a feature of English globally and is therefore unlikely to be accepted as correct here either.

And that is how these errors become engrained and then perpetuated.

a high standard of written English from a teacher should be the norm.

of course we all make mistakes. But the combination of two errors in one short sentence is disturbing. If the teacher genuinely does not know that “would of” is completely wrong, then that is concerning.

And people wonder why there is a shortage of teachers!

Good for you.

Other people do make mistakes for time to time.

There’s no way to do this without you probably feeling a bit cringe for doing it and maybe others thinking it’s nitpicking but genuinely what the fuck??? Mention it!!! And I’m a teacher.

I've recruited to many roles where good written English was a prerequisite, and writing "would of" would have led to an immediate rejection for me too. Sometimes you might have 50-100 applications for one job, and you can slim the pile down by considering those elements.

Like it or not, that is the reality when people are competing for roles where a good level of literacy is a requirement. If someone cannot write well, and also has not taken the trouble to get their application proofread, their chances of getting the job will be low.

Microsoft Word will flag up "would of" so it shouldn't take much effort for the applicant to spot!

I used to, couldn't help it. Mostly didn't even notice doing it untilit was too late. DD's very excellent teacher once said to me, quite embarrassed, that they got the sheets from some sort of outside agency which supplied all the schools in the area. Damn shocking. I had no hesitation in correcting them after that, so etimes with a red biro (but usually blakc) just because the school were PAYING for the disgraceful rubbish.

DS was taught that the UK consisted of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland and that Belfast was the capital of Ireland.

We then had to explain his teacher was wrong, which ended up in an argument with him. We ended up having to prove we were right before he believed us because his teacher couldn't possibly be wrong.

Given it was a key fact they should know for that age group and the teacher, repeatedly got it wrong (this was during lockdown so she was saying it on video call I could hear) it's poor.

It's something that winds me up at the best of times in terms of English ignorance. Now I know why so many adults can't cope with British politics.

TBF the teacher clearly need to...

Diabolical

Agreed ... and despite being a very common error in the UK, it won't become the norm as it makes absolutely no sense grammatically. You can't completely rewrite the grammar rules of a language just because people habitually get something wrong. "Of" is not a verb. It's not the same as a word such as "gay" changing its meaning and/or usage over time.

I don't think either are typos. Not knowing the difference between effect and affect is not a typo . One is a verb and the other a noun. Would/could of is also not a typo- it is a lack of understanding about past modal verbs. The teacher is writing as they speak and does not seem to understand the difference.

Yes, none of my overseas friends for whom English is a second language would ever use "would of". It's definitely a mistake that is only really made by native speakers.

Hell, yes. Let them know. The mistakes are disgraceful.

Has illiterate changed its meaning, which I understood to be "unable to read or write"?

At best, it's a typo on a sheet produced by someone else that the teacher has missed...

Then, next best, its an error (I do it sometimes and then correct myself, in my accent 'would've' sounds like 'would of' even though I know it isn't)... and should have been spotted and corrected.

At worst, the teacher thinks it is correct.

If that were a pupil who made any one of those errors, they would rightly be pulled up on it and corrected, and either told off for not checking their work properly or the incorrect use of 'of' instead of 'have' would have been addressed.

Why would it be any different for a teacher?

If a kid wouldn't have the excuse 'Oh Miss I was busy and missed it because I was tired...' then nor should the teacher.

Yes, I would be that parent and I absolutely was that kid who would correct worksheets and hand them back to the teacher (in red pen, because thats how stuff is corrected!).

I also had teachers correct me on my use of words they didn't know and it infuriated me no end - amused to see someone else had 'tack' (as in horse tack) corrected to 'tackle' - I had 'bridle' changed to 'bridal' when the context was indeed horsey, not wedding-y.

I had a stand up row with a geography teacher when he asked us to name cave formations... expecting 'stalactite, stalagmite' and I added 'helictite and heligmite' and he crossed those out of my book, so I raised it in class when he went through it again.

Teacher: What do stalactites and stalagmites do?
Kid: They grow down from the ceiling and up from the floor sir
Me: WHat about helictites and heligmites sir?
Teacher: 'I told you to stop pissing about, what do THEY do then Diddlin'?'
Me: They grow in all directions, round and round sometimes Sir!
Teacher: Get out!

Being the ultimate smart arse (it really is no wonder teachers did not like me), I brought a book to the next lesson with photos of both (and straws, flowstones, rimstone dams, columns, popcorn, bacon, drapes)... written by my DF. I did get a somewhat forced apology for that.