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Original poster

i went to visit a private school today and...

91 replies

beforesunrise · 28/01/2009 17:21

... one of the girls in Y10 or 11 (sorry not sure), explaing her choices of GCSE, said "I chose topic x because that's what i am most best at" none of the teachers present made any attempts to correct her either.

this school costs 13/14k per year and they can't even speak properly??? I was appalled....

OP posts:
WEESLEEKITLauriefairycake · 28/01/2009 17:26

lol

of course they don't correct everything - there isn't enough hours in the day.

stop being weird

pagwatch · 28/01/2009 17:30

Good
If I went to any school where a child speaking in front of adults they didn't know made a mistake and were corrected in front of everyone I would walk out and not look back.

That would be pretty bloody mean

I asked my DD in Sainsburys a while back if she wanted raspberries or blackcunts.
I would have been very if she had embaressed me by correcting me.

weird indeed

squeaver · 28/01/2009 17:32

Perhaps she was nervous

etchasketch · 28/01/2009 17:36

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
beforesunrise · 28/01/2009 17:47

sorry i don't think it's weird to expect a girl of 14 or 15 to have a basic grasp of the english grammar! i am not saying they should know about the law of relativity or shakesperean sonnets by heart or anything...

anyway- I concede that my eldest is only 3 (and no i am not a freak planner- this school goes from reception to GCSE!) and so out of touch with teenagers, perhaps most best is teenage slang but i think for that kind of money i would expect correct grammar at the very least!

OP posts:
PortAndLemon · 28/01/2009 17:51

I would expect her to have a basic grap of English grammar. But I wouldn't expect her to use it all the time, particularly in extemporised speech. And I agree entirely with pagwatch that I'd be appalled if the teachers had jumped in to correct her under those circumstances.

I'm not saying the school is fantastic, but one child making one grammatical error doesn't mean that it isn't.

slayerette · 28/01/2009 17:53

Oh FFS. If that's all you want from a school, you have seriously weird priorities. Yes, good grammar would be wonderful in an ideal world but I think when your PFB is a teenage girl, you will be so happy if she is communicating at all that good grammar might not be your first concern.

I teach at a private school and I wouldn't dream of stopping a student who was communicating something - anything - relevant to the lesson and the context to correct their grammar! How to make sure they never speak up in a lesson again!

Original poster
beforesunrise · 28/01/2009 18:01

ok- i accept that correcting her would have been wrong.

i don't however accept that good grammar is an optional- perhaps i am weird but i can live with that weirdness. and yes i am sure i will see things differently when mine are teenagers, but i doubt i'll ever be happy if my children can't express themselves properly.

am also intrigued by what in my post gave the impression that good grammar is "all i want from a school". there were other things i didn't like, and some things i liked (not many), the fact that i don't talk about them doesn't imply anything...

OP posts:
donnie · 28/01/2009 18:04

I am a teacher and I would never EVER correct a someone's speech in that kind of public situation - just how humiliated would you want her to be? if that is the basis on which you judge a school then you are deluded and petty.

charitygirl · 28/01/2009 18:05

lololol at 'blackcunts'

slayerette · 28/01/2009 18:07

By linking the school fees to the poor grammar in your OP, you suggest that that is what the school stands or falls by in your eyes.

And I am not saying that I approve of good grammar; I just accept that as students struggle through adolescence and the education system, in some areas they are trying to articulate difficult concepts. I would rather they expressed themselves than not, and I would not under any circumstances humiliate them in front of their peers and visiting adults by pulling them up for their errors in such a public way as you seem to suggest is acceptable.

slayerette · 28/01/2009 18:08

x-posts, donnie - glad it's not just me who feels that way.

lostinfrance · 28/01/2009 18:11

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

donnie · 28/01/2009 18:12

And if we are being pedantic about grammar, then yours, beforesunrise, is far from perfect:

"i don't however accept that good grammar is an optional"

Ouch.

slayerette · 28/01/2009 18:14

My students may not have perfect grammar but they can use capital letters.

TotalChaos · 28/01/2009 18:14

some children might have an enduring language impairment. anyway - basic speech therapy principle - don't correct, model the correct sentence back.

donnie · 28/01/2009 18:17

I teach mine swearwords and similar ( lots of references to 'queynte' etc in Chaucer). Plus choice expletives in Larkin of course!

Original poster
beforesunrise · 28/01/2009 18:33

donnie and slayerette, what happened to not wanting to humiliate people? or were you trying to prove a point? I see.. very clever of you both. I hope you speak my mother tongue (not english) as well as speak yours.

Perhaps this is yet another of those cultural differences I will never get- in my country you do judge schools by such basics such as producing young adults who don't make basic grammatical mistakes in a 3 words sentence. I see that here it is considered secondary, apparently. Very good- I live and learn.

Anyway, I am ever so slightly bemused at the rancor I have elicited so shall now get on with more serious tasks such as getting myself a drink and reading a book on punctuation and capital letters...

OP posts:
Original poster
beforesunrise · 28/01/2009 18:34

And before you all jump in and correct my previous post, it should have read "as well as I speak yours"

OP posts:
ramonaquimby · 28/01/2009 18:37

This is what she may hear at home...despite hearing grammatically correct English at school.

slayerette · 28/01/2009 18:44

I don't know what your mother tongue is so couldn't tell you whether I speak it as well as you speak English. The point I was making was that it seems hypocritical to single out this poor girl for the mistakes she was making when you yourself are not perfect in that very area. Perhaps you might show the same empathy towards her as you want us to show to you.

paolosgirl · 28/01/2009 18:47

Well said Before. For what it's worth, I agree with you. Children in Yr 10 and 11 really should not be saying 'most best at' - it's not even something that my state school educated (oh, the horror!) 11 and 9 year old say.

You really didn't come out of this very well at all, did you Donnie and Slayerette?

slayerette · 28/01/2009 18:50

Why not, paolosgirl?

paolosgirl · 28/01/2009 18:53

Why not what, Slayerette?

PippiCalzelunghe · 28/01/2009 18:53

beforesunrise I get your point. you are not weird. It's is obvious to me from your post that it is the lack of good grammar that shocked you not that you choose the school just by this.

I must say that at times I am/was shocked too (uni students not able to spell and not knowing any grammatical rule etc). I'd also expect good correct language being spoken at any time at that age (except amongst friends were undoubtly 'street' is the only language) but especially in such place.

Having said that I think at times 'we' foreigner take much more notice because it is a language we had to study that way rather than being born with.