To think that if you HomeEd you should be able spell, punctuate and construct sentences?

[AmIOdetteOrOdile]

I would expect teachers in schools to be able to do it.

But I am perhaps missing something.

Depends if you're talking about the work they are giving and exhibiting to their kids as examples, or their own personal ramblings which the kids don't see. In which case it's totally irrelevant.

I am missing something. Namely your point.

Are you talking about one particular teacher? Teachers in general? One particular home educator? Home educators in general? Teachers as they appear on Mumsnet? Home educators as they appear on Mumsnet?

Most many teachers can't either....

I was quite shocked to find out that someone who has sent me e-mails with terrible grammar and punctuation actually home eds one of her children.

But I am perhaps missing something

Is this a test to see where we would place the punctuation?

But does she home educate them through the medium of emails, wilywombat?

Emails are a different medium to other types of writing. You use a different type of language. Simple as. I have actually worked as a proof-reader for scholarly journals- you wouldn't necessarily know that from my posts on Mumsnet. It's about genre. Those of us with a proper education know this. (though I'm still too lazy to HE, so my dc's will have to put up with the inferior grammar skills of their teachers).

at getting the title wrong .

It was a general musing, based on a conversation I had with some people who HomeEd, who were giving their children incorrect information (telling them a particular plural was "ys" when in fact it is "ies".

I know that not all 'formal' teachers are up to scratch, but of the say, 10 or so teachers a child will have up to their teens, the chances are that the majority of them will get it right.

My spelling is better than my ds's teacher...........

(and yes, I know I missed a bracket)

Didn't know that Riven.

It still makes my teeth itch though .

No I just wondered if it was possible for her to educate her child to an acceptable level of English if she wasnt actually at that level herself.

I must be really anal as I punctuate my e-mails to the same level as everything else, I also try to do the same in text messages

I would assume that someone who is an english teacher at secondary level must have a minimum level of ability?

I am well aware, sadly from watching are you smarter than a 10 year old that I actually know very little about grammar.

Ah I just read Rivens info about the workbooks.

If she adapts her writing to different genres, as many of us do, then you can't know much about her level anyway. The level of my Mumsnets posts wouldn't do for scholarly journals- yet I can assure you that I get published in those too. I also adapt my accent according to the company I'm in. But then I'm multilingual anyway, so this seems a natural thing to do.

I have seen some weird stuff from English teachers at secondary school.
Doesn't put me off secondary schools, dd is getting old enough to judge for herself and to learn the good bits and ignore the bad.

What makes your teeth itch? The grammar or the home ed?

I can spell, punctuate and contsruct sentences, but that doens't mean I can always be bothered. PLus it doesn't always happen when typing at speed.
But why should HE parents have to be better at English that the rest of the population?

Cory I wish I could ease up a bit really and "adapt to different genres" I rarely text anyone, I cant get into all the abbreviation and lack of punctuation LOL (how sad am I)

Some of it might be poor typing technique - I can spell perfectly well when I try but when I write in a non-work context, I can be very lazy - my texting is also very hard to read as I can't delete wrong letters so I either have to scrap the whole text or send it with odd letters stuck between words .