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?

This reminds me of the first school my daughter went to. She loved learning and grammar and punctuation was a particularly strong point with her. Towards the end of Year 2, she brought one of her books home, and was extremely upset that her teacher had corrected her work. My daughter had written a sentence which included 'I would have' - the teacher had crossed this out, and corrected it to 'I would of'. After three really dire years at the school, two of which were with the same semi literate class teacher, this was the final straw and I moved her to another school.

"Mummies and daddies", for a child old enough to be learning about the decline of coal mining in the North East? 😂

This.

Rather than ring the year head and make a song and dance about it.

Oh my word. Yes I would.

Ummmm, it should be affect not effect

Believe it or not, I skimmed your OP, @Sadgirlonatrain and it was the effected that leapt out! I didn't even notice the of!

Now that I have, I actually would go to the head of department or head with this. When I just saw the effected, I thought pretending it was a typo would work. But two major errors in two words? No, that's really not acceptable in any subject.

"Spelling and grammar don't really matter" say the parents of the kids whose CVs will be thrown in the bin first.

The job market is SO competitive now. Spelling and grammar are the number one tactic for the first sift. If someone can't be bothered to communicate properly why should we employ them over someone who can?

I would probably bring it to someone’s attention.

I had an entire handout in Ancient History about “Christian’s” once - I can’t understand how these people qualify.

I'm a teacher, so I do understand the pressure on teachers and appreciate that mistakes will be made sometimes. Autocorrect can insert errors sneakily too.
In the example from OP though, it seems that the teacher just doesn't know grammar. If that is the case - and there are other mistakes in her writing - then it needs to be addressed. It's not ok for worksheets or other materials to be full of basic spelling or grammar mistakes.
We are letting children down if we pretend that adults don't have to write properly.
Not everyone is going to be a high earner like @Bellaboo1 , who doesn't have to bother with such things; most young people with poor written English will miss out on job opportunities. School is the place where pupils learn these skills and all teachers have to be competent enough to model them consistently.

Unbelievable!

I wrote a post earlier defending the teacher in OP, but I'd be the first to have a robust discussion in your shoes.

When my brother was young he loved dinosaurs. He brought in his models for show and tell and the teacher gave him a dressing down about how there were no such thing and that god created the world in 7 days. He was far more knowledgeable than her at age 7!!! Our mother kicked up a right stink and I think that particular teacher was pushed towards early retirement.

Red pen correction and a sad face saying “must try harder” in the corner.

Outside of English, is SPAG taken into consideration for children much? I remember getting an essay back in university and noticing a similarly sloppy grammar error that I had made but hadn’t been corrected. And I don’t ever remember any corrections outside of obvious spelling mistakes, grammar seemed to go by the by.

OP I really think that if you go over the teacher’s head you will generate one or both of two outcomes:

1. The person you go to and the classroom teacher will have a laugh at your expense

1. The classroom teacher will believe, rightly or wrongly, that doing so was an attempt to show her up or get her into trouble. This may have consequences for your DC and even if it does not, you may wonder

I would communicate directly with the teacher privately. I would not go to the teacher's superiors with this.

*Red pen correction and a sad face saying “must try harder” in the corner."

That's just vindictive and childish.

There's no reason why you can't report it anonymously and save yourself, and your child, from any potential repercussions.

It's highly unlikely that the person OP goes will have a laugh at her expense. "Would of effected" is absolutely shocking. If a member of the senior leadership team thought it was okay and that she was to be mocked, then OP has a much bigger problem with the school and might be advised to look for another one.

Outside of English, is SPAG taken into consideration for children much?

The higher education regulator in the UK is currently making moves to take spelling and grammar into greater consideration in university exams.

They recently produced a report called "Assessment practices in English higher education providers: Spelling, punctuation and grammar" if anyone's interested.

It was a joke 🙄

I'd red pen / highlighter it in the homework book. Probably a bit pass-agg but gets the point across without having to single anyone out (may not have been the teacher who wrote it)

@saraclara I would have agreed with you until I read this thread. I am shocked at the number of PPs minimising the mistakes

I can't imagine any adult with dyslexia is unaware that they struggle with spelling and grammar, particularly if they are a teacher.

As a teacher in that position surely you would use a spell checker/ having found some way round it to prevent passing on my errors to the kids.

My feeling is that the teacher, like quite a few on this thread, feels it doesn't really matter because it's Geography and not English. That actually sends quite a confusing message to a child learning to write and as a parent I would not be happy. It's just a lack of effort and care and pretty shoddy really.

(I'm aware there are typos in my previous post... but I'm not a teacher 😅)

I think I would complain, but in a light hearted way. My Dad once wrote a poem to my teacher pointing out that a maths question set for my homework was unworkable.... and received a poem of apology the same day!

My son once had English GCSE homework. ‘Lady MacBeth was a right cow. Discuss.’