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?

Regional accents should not make a difference to the correct us affect/effect, or would/could/should have (not of!)

Really? Over what is basically a typo?

At a stretch, I'd believe that 'effected' instead of 'affected' could be a typo, although I very much doubt it. No way can 'would of' instead of 'would have' be a typo.

It's not a typo. The 'effected' error could be at a push. But 'would of' is not a typo. It's a grammar error that demonstrates that the teacher is actually ignorant of the correct structure.

OP, I haven't RTFT so apologies if this has already been mentioned, but was this a question set by the teacher, or did it appear in a printed textbook? If the latter, then the problem is with the book rather than the teacher (although I think the teacher should have spotted it). But in any case, how old is the teacher? There was a time when English grammar wasn't taught in schools - with the result that we ended up with a generation of children being taught by a generation of teachers who hadn't been taught the rules themselves. Could this be what's happened here?

I would leave it; there is a chance the teacher will start picking on your child if they take badly. Not worth the risk IMO.

My mother corrected one of my teachers.

I had written umbrella incorrectly. So the teacher corrected it in red with ‘umbarella’. My mother corrected her and the teacher crossed out my mothers correction! In the end my mam cut out the dictionary entry for umbrella and stuck it in the work book. It was very petty but looking back, really funny!

100% this. 'Would of' doesn't mean anything and it doesn't make sense – people write this because it's how it sounds when we say 'would've', but to write it shows a fundamental lack of understanding of our language and parts of speech.

I agree with this 100%. It is in primary school where I learnt the difference between of and have. It is in primary school where I learnt the difference between affect and effect.

I can not remember ever being taught, directly or indirectly, to use words incorrectly. Regardless of which subject we were being taught.

As a student, if I made spelling or grammatical errors in any subject I would have been corrected. How could we have a lower standard for teachers than we do for students?

Primary school is the building blocks for secondary school which is the building blocks for tertiary education (if a student chooses that path) or for a vocation.

It isn’t just about correct grammar. Words have a definition; they convey meaning. Therefore, it is also about communicating effectively.

I wouldn't label it as a complaint, but I would drop the teacher (or HOY if it's less awkward) an email. Even put some humour in to it:

"I'm so sorry to be that parent, but I believe the sentence in this piece of homework should have said "How would this have affected the North East?". I know it's pedantic, but there are many children that take their lead from their teachers and I'm sure this would be frowned upon in English Language class."

Emailing the head of year is really dropping her in it, if you must do anything let her know directly.

Why is it odd to complain that a teacher doesn’t understand basic grammar?

@OhMonDieux , maybe the headteacher was directed to the thread by a friend.

Talking about standards.
My daughter's English teacher in secondary school was dyslexic. He said that on his first day and asked to ignore his spelling mistakes which were regularly popping up.

Oh give over. Your son can mention it to the teacher when he hands in the homework if he wants to. Teachers are not perfect human beings and are entitled to make mistakes like everyone else.

Definitely let the school know about the poor spelling and grammar, OP.

I teach English, and work hard to instil good habits in my students. To know a colleague was sending stuff home to parents (let alone modelling it to students as 'good English') shouldn't be tolerated.

And, to those who are saying, "But it's only geography. Why does it matter?" Well, that's the whole point of some of the curriculum reforms over the last few years in secondary schools. All subjects which contain some kind of written element (including geography) have to consider correct use of 'SPaG' in their syllabus. The idea behind this was to stop things exactly like the OP is describing!

However, as we all know, recruiting (let alone retaining) good teachers is such a problem now that basically anyone who is upright and breathing can be brought in to teach your child, including for GCSEs.

That's why I got out and now tutor privately!

Then it's about time they did learn the difference.

I'm on the fence. I'm usually quite fond of proper SPAG, though I had a lecturer in university who had slides riddled with spelling errors. This I didn't correct as I knew she was dyslexic.

@ShaNaNaNa I'm glad you didn't install those good habits 😉

I'm not a teacher, I work for the NHS and recently we had some laminated posters distributed to put up in various areas. They all contained a massive grammatical error but when I pointed it out, I was told that no-one would notice and it would be too expensive to redo the whole lot.

Everyone who walks past the posters comments on the error.

I really want to see the poster now!!

It's not a typo. The 'effected' error could be at a push. But 'would of' is not a typo. It's a grammar error that demonstrates that the teacher is actually ignorant of the correct structure

Grammatical error is correct. If you want to use 'Grammar', then it should be 'Grammar mistake'; not 'Grammar error'. Of the phrases above, Grammatical error is correct because error is a noun and the adjective grammatical qualifies it.

Correcting things like this is what I do for a living but I wouldn’t correct this. I’d tell my child the right word. But I only correct copy if asked.

I would leave it if it’s a one off. Whoever prepared the document was probably doing so in their own time, unpaid. It may not even have been the same teacher.

The teacher can’t go back in time and retype the document, nor can they return to primary school.

As for the Head Teacher that would hit the roof… are you sure you have your priorities right?

If a teacher doesn’t have time to proofread something , it could be indicative that their workload is becoming unmanageable.

The OP says they are a good teacher, and knows their subject. I wouldn’t be worried unless it affected DCs study of Geography.

Lots of people saying the only thing they would do is tell their children why it is wrong and teach them the correct version. Which I would do anyway, but what about the children whose parents don't take so much of an interest? Or couldn't spot the mistakes for any number of reasons?

They should proof read their work. Super-lazy not to. They are TEACHERS. Children will think that what they are writing is correct.