Do you know the meaning of this word?

[Missingmybabysomuch]

Just that really, my DD was doing descriptive writing at school about a fire. She wrote about "acrid" smoke and her teacher hadn't heard of the word and had to look it up. My DH hadn't heard of it either. It surprised me as I didn't think it was a particularly unknown word but now I'm doubting myself! So I just wanted a hive mind poll to see whether it's a word generally known or not.

YABU - It isn't a word I've come across before.

YANBU - I know what acrid means.

I know the word but I don't know if I've ever heard anyone say it in real life tbh! I think I've just read it (in Harry Potter probably)

🙄😂😂😂

Common enough word, clearly the teacher hasn't read many books in her life.

Use it regularly - smoke you know gets in your throat etc

Really? I'm. Pricing that opposite with my DSs (16 and 14).

The younger one is an avid reader, but they both watch a variety of YouTube channels about history, science, aviation, racing, railways.

They will sometimes come out with odd pronunciations due to them hearing it from people in different countries and we will resort to the dictionary to debate how to pronounce it (they sometimes change, but other times don't, but both agree that the aluminum is an abomination and should ALWAYS be aluminium....lol).

I recently attended a school open night.

There were grammatical errors in the head teacher’s presentation and a number of the teachers had poor verbal grammar. I spoke to a few international students, and their command of the English language was perfection!

It’s a reasonably common word, yes.

But everyone has their weird little blind spots. I have two literature-related degrees, for one of which I studied a wide range of medieval texts as well as Modern English. So I was a bit ashamed to find myself a couple of years into my teaching career when I came across the word ‘segue’ and had very little idea either how to say it or what it meant. It had just slipped through the net! I’d still say my vocabulary is wider than many people’s.

I don’t think one little blip is cause to lambast either this particular teacher or indeed all teachers.

The thing is, if you got a random selection of well-educated people from other professions to prepare that presentation, there would probably be a similar number of errors.

If it was all prepared by specialist English teachers, I think you might have a point. But your average geography teacher or physics teacher doesn’t necessarily have better grammar than anyone else. But there’s a nasty tendency for people to hold teachers to a higher standard on those specific things, as if they spent all their training just perfecting their spelling and sentence structure.

I love accuracy in language but there’s a lot more to teaching!

I would however expect a head teacher to know when to use an apostrophe.

we giggle when shops get it wrong - tonight’s special’s are - but it rings alarm bells when a head teacher is prepared to stand up in-front of a room full of prospective parents with a slide entitled A’level Subject’s.

I really don’t think it’s a nasty tendency to expect higher standards from an educational
professional earning c. £80k.

She's not wrong. The majority of journal articles are badly written and would be vastly improved by using simpler language.

YANBU it's a common word.

Yes it's a well used word

This makes me feel better as I know the word segue! Lol

I've always been a voracious reader and have a degree in International Relations. I had never heard of acrid. Or if I have I've forgotten.

I'm not uneducated nor poorly read. Don't we all have gaps?

During lockdown I was listening in to my son’s teacher reading a book to the class over Zoom and he pronounced facade to rhyme with blockade 🙄

Or the teacher has said that 'would of' is not necessarily 'bad' grammar, but non standard and acceptable in certain dialects.

English Language A level teachers are often pulled between the prescriptive desire to correct, correct, correct and the descriptive desire to observe and comment on. And kids mangle what you tell them.

Having said that, I am concerned about the literacy levels of many of the English teachers I come across. In addition, the number who don't actually seem to be able to switch between Non Standard and Standard English when teaching. But then, you don't need an English A level or degree to be an English teacher anymore.

Or maybe I'm just getting old.

YANBU

As an aside, the average reading age of adults in the UK is 9 years.

In light of that, there are a lot of people in all jobs/professions who don't have a wide vocabulary or strong command of the Englsih language.

Isn't it high time trainee teachers had to pass a reasonably demanding English test (I don’t think GCSE is much of a reliable indicator any more) and be required to undertake extra training if they fail?

You do realise we're in the middle of a horrific teaching retention and recruitment crisis don't you...?

She's not wrong. The majority of journal articles are badly written and would be vastly improved by using simpler language.

Yes. I was told this when I wrote my PhD thesis. I was encouraged to simplify my writing as it was unnecessarily convoluted.

I would however expect a head teacher to know when to use an apostrophe.

How about commas? 😉

Surely the response to that should be improve pay and conditions for teachers rather than to compromise teaching standards though. Make teaching as attractive as tech and finance. Accepting declining standards benefits nobody.

I imagine it would have been the head’s PA/admin staff who prepared the slides. But they should still have been proofread.

Fuck me !!!! Teacher had never heard acrid??? How the fuck do they qualify?

It's a really common word.

Surely the response to that should be improve pay and conditions for teachers rather than to compromise teaching standards though. Make teaching as attractive as tech and finance. Accepting declining standards benefits nobody.

Sure, in the long term - obviously. But in the short term, generating more hoops to jump through to become a teacher, and rejecting more candidates, is clearly a terrible idea 🙄