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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

I've just had to correct the spelling on ds' homework - his teacher's.

48 replies

CuddlyKelpie · 11/02/2009 19:55

I thought it looked wrong so checked in the dictionary (yeah ok, it's been a while since I needed to spell it) and no, isosceles is not spelt isoceles.

I wrote it correctly for ds' benefit and wrote sp! in the margin for her's!

Am I setting ds up for purgatory?

OP posts:

TheSmallClanger · 11/02/2009 21:18

You're very brave.

Teachers with bad spelling set a bad example to children. Unfortunately, she may well think she is right.

wickedwitchofwestfield · 11/02/2009 21:21

the class teacher of one of the little boys I look after put 's at the end of a name with an s at the end

both I and his dad pointed it out between us but we didn't make a note of it lol

however - while some of you may think it is a bit rude, these people are meant to be teaching your children! I think I'd be horrified to think that the person in charge of shaping my LO mind was unable to spell, or at least use a dictionary!!

wickedwitchofwestfield · 11/02/2009 21:23

reading my post back, I should have said 'Dad and I' and could possibly have written that opening sentance in a way that wasn't so confusing LOL

but hey, I'm not a teacher

Original poster

CuddlyKelpie · 11/02/2009 21:53

Kayteee that's fairly poor! Typos and slips are one thing but...

SmallClanger, I am not brave at all, as of 8.24 this evening I butchered ds' homework to completely remove all traces of 'sp!'.
He had been required to cut out some triangles at the bottom of the page so I simply enthusiastically chopped an extra bit and she will never know.
We have a fairly easy relationship so I like to think she would have 'got' the joke but in times of stress we don't always, do we?

OP posts:

loobeylou · 11/02/2009 22:57

DDs nursery report claimed she could do such a thing "in an appropriate manor for her age"

SalmonintheLiffey · 12/02/2009 08:57

Are the dept of education not legally entitled to check that home schoolers are capable of doing the job?

motherlovebone · 12/02/2009 09:05

shouldnt the dept of education send people who are capable of doing the job?

morningpaper · 12/02/2009 09:07

lol - I was going to say YABU but reading your OP I don't think you were - I mean, if she is teaching a class about isosceles she should REALLY spell it right. I mean REALLY

SalmonintheLiffey · 12/02/2009 09:10

They should of course, but that's not the point I was making.

DumbledoresGirl · 12/02/2009 09:12

Kayteee, I would have written back "Please send someone capable to assessing the work we have been doing".

Disgraceful and no excuse, although I think I could forgive the mis-spelling of isosceles.

DumbledoresGirl · 12/02/2009 09:13

Argh! "capable of" not "to".

SalmonintheLiffey · 12/02/2009 09:16

MP, I agree with you, but I think the maths teachers these days take the view that it's only important you grasp the concept of what an isosceles triangle is. How to spell Isosceles would be regarded as the English teacher's job.

LOL at 'appropriate manor for her age'. A little tykes log cabin??

cory · 12/02/2009 09:17

How do you deal with this one? In junior school dd's spell tests often contained mis-spellings of fairly basic words. Now it may be snotty and arrogant to correct an adult, but the only alternative is for your dc to get told off/lose marks for using the correct spelling, or for them to learn the incorrect spelling.

DumbledoresGirl · 12/02/2009 09:24

This happened to one of my children cory. I was incensed at the incorrect spelling in a list (ex primary school teacher here!) What I did was, I corrected the word on the list, ensured my child learnt the correct spelling and also asked my child to point out the spelling mistake to the teacher as I didn't want her learning the correct spelling only to have it marked incorrectly by the teacher using the spelling list as his guide.

DumbledoresGirl · 12/02/2009 09:26

That might be considered snotty and rude to some people here, and I was actually quite embarrassed at having to point out an error to another adult, but the point of spelling lists is to learn the correct spellings!

Blondeshavemorefun · 12/02/2009 10:37

admitely (sp) isosceles is a hard word to spell

but know what you mean - i have said to mb when the teacher wrote something in charges writing book - and she wrote their instead of there

as in their are 2 oo in hoot (charge wrote hot instead of hoot for owl)

mb wrote back, its there not their!!!!

echt · 12/02/2009 10:43

She's a teacher and paid to get it right. YANBU. Typos are one thing, but handwriting means they really don't know. I am a teacher and am ashamed when I see the poor standards of spelling and grammar in, I must say, the younger generation - not all of them, but far too many.

Kayteee · 12/02/2009 11:48

Salmon,
LAs are entitled only to make "informal enquiries" about HomeEd. This means that they can visit if you want them to, but you can, instead, provide evidence in many other ways. For example a written report, outlining your chosen style of education can suffice. At the end of the day you don't need anyone's "permission" to H.E. It's entirely up to the parent iyswim.

Kayteee · 12/02/2009 11:49

Dumbledore,
I did...and they haven't!!!

ShauntheSheep · 12/02/2009 12:01

Could have just been a slip of pen. Teachers are after all busy people and sometimes make mistakes. The fact that it was written wrong once is not an indication taht the teacher cant spell the word just that she has this time forgotten to out in an 's'. No big deal IMO. children need to know that teachers are human too and can make mistakes.

muffle · 12/02/2009 12:10

I agree it's rude to correct someone else's spelling - but the exception is your child's teacher whose job it is to teach things correctly. People don't have to be able to spell perfectly, but if they're instructing someone else they should be bothered to look it up - it only takes seconds.

If I was a teacher and someone corrected my mistakes I would say sorry and thank you for spotting it.

I know I'll probably be a PITA when it comes to it but i won't shrink from doing this. I don't with nursery though, for the simple reason that they're not teaching my child in the same way and the fact that they can't spell or punctuate doesn't affect him.

GooseyLoosey · 12/02/2009 12:10

We correct spelling lists here too. Dh marks them up with the correct spelling and sends them back.

The school encourages the children to spell phonetically. We asked the teacher at parents' evening if we should correct ds's spelling in his homework. She said no - they all pick it up eventually. It was all we could do to point out that this was possibly not true as she hadn't.

potatofactory · 12/02/2009 13:00

she / he will think you are insufferable from now on. What were you thinking?

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