Would you point out a spelling mistake in a handout from the teacher?

[emkana]

We had a note in the book bag today -

"We will be making Christingle's next week."

Aaaargh!!!!!
It really bugs me - but should I let it go?

ha, ha, ha, and pay me nudge nudge.

edam, what makes you think that the average woman on MN knows enough about teaching, spelling and grammar for that matter as demonstrated on this thread, to tell teachers how to teach.

hence my comparison with other professionals.

and spell and write.

I'm with emkana and Snowleopard. I am neither an editor nor a writer, and the general misuse of apostrophes still annoys me intensely. What annoys me more is that because of a trend in education that "these things don't matter" there is now a generation of people, including teachers, who genuinely don't know the difference between "your" and "you're".

When I write customer documents (a reasonably direct equivalent of notes from teachers to parents, surely?) I use every available means to get it right, including getting other people to check it. It also affects my opinion of other people when they consistently don't do the same - sorry, but it does. Hence I will do all I can to make sure that my DS and DD learn correct grammar even if it isn't fashionable. I know it's not the end of the world, and that there are a lot more important measures of a good teacher, but it is not, IMO, "nothing" as some people on this thread seem to think.

I'd give the teacher the benefit of the doubt this time but if it happened again, yes, I would point it out.
I don't get why you wouldn't. It's not a 'minute thing'. It's about clear communication.
It's such a simple rule and of course the people teaching my child to read should be taught it, if they don't already know it.
(I need to confess here that I was 2 yrs into an English degree before a politics student taught me the apostrophe rule. I'd rather my children grasped it before that stage.)

I wouldn't say anything, no.

It could have been written/typed by a teaching assistant/student anyway.

No.

If ds pointed it out I'd explain it was a mistake.

His teacher has written 'quizz' in his reading book twice now. I can't bring myself to correct it but it makes me a bit cross and I think it's very poor personally.

Emkana, if German possessives can get along without apostrophes I'm sure English ones can too. How is ds?

Kikisdee, of course I would correct a doctor if they were obviously wrong! When a doctor prescribed me medication unsuitable for breastfeeding women (I looked it up as I was unsure) I went back to the the surgery to make an informal complaint.
This particular case is a tricky one, hence Emkana's post but there is no need to be so rude to her.

Message withdrawn

kiskidee you are just being rude and obnoxious.

emkana I know what you mean. I am a teacher too and sometimes I am shocked by misuse of apostrophes...there are a couple of displays in my school with apostrophes in the wrong place.

.... and just a wee point as well, given how beautfully she writes - emkana is herself foreign, and writing in her second languange, if I recall correctly.

Puts us all to shame doesn't it!

For the record, I'd probably let sometihng like the example given pass, as is it is aimed at the parents (even though I would notice and be unhappy about it). However, if the teacher ever "taught" mistakes, eg incorrect spellings or grammar, I'd have no hesitation whatsoever in bringing it to the teacher's attention.

My other bugbear is listening to teachers using incorrect grammar in their speech, which also provides a poor example. There is a particular West of Scotland "trait", which to my ears makes people sound uneducated (and yes, I am an intellectual snob), where people say "I seen that", "I done that" "We have went....". We correct ds when he does it and I don't want ds to say to me "But Miss X says that".

Thank you prettybird!

Wow, what a very defensive thread. Can't see many self-righteous posters but can see a lot of very defensive ones. Why so prickly? and why on earth has Xenia got jumped on for stating her views. Mumsnet is here to provide a forum for different views.

I'm with edam (and emkana) on this. Some of the examples quoted here of misspellings and grammar mistakes are hair-raising. Yes, everyone is human but the teachers are there to teach - it is their job to get it right. Yes, there may be more important things to worry about but many parents are concerned about poor teaching. That doesn't mean they don't "have a life". Equally, if the teachers here don't think facts and accuracy are correct, how about taking a different job?

Just seen prettybird's comment - a voice of reason at last.

emkana, your english is excellent. please dont be upset.

you posed a question about a punctuation error. unfortunately, some posters took this as an opportunity to generally lay into teachers ! this sort of thread makes me feel pretty defensive, so i do understand where kiskidee is coming from.

how funny that you lot think i was being rude. you haven't seen me rude yet.

factual and to the point, not rude.

emkana second what noonar says. For what it's worth though, the misuse of apostrophes is my mother's pet hate and she has on many an occasion corrected stores, such as John Lewis in Birmingham - fish department Herring's, Skate's etc. Okay it may seem a trivial issue however, we should be proud of our language and it's usage (gosh now I'm paranoid about putting them in the right place ). May I ask a question - are children even taught grammar these days???? I wasn't and it's over 30 yrs since I learnt to read and write. Shame really as it would really help us learn foreign languages far more effectively.

Oh and forgot to mention. My mother's an English Hons graduate and a retired Middle School teacher

i hope the teacher doesn't read this!

people make mistakes, especially when writing and when busy. c'est la vie!

Yes i would, and have recently pointed out that my son is being taught local slang instead of the queens english...(disgusting)
As parents if we dont expect better we wont get it!!

kiskidee, wouldn't it be the polite thing to say "I didn't mean to upset"?

But you're obviously not one to suffer from self-doubt, so never mind.

What's he being taught, laney?

Emkana, sorry this has gone belly up! Usually someone posts a 'my child's teacher wrote X' (insert grammatical solecism of choice) and everyone agrees how shocking it is and we all go home happy.

FWIW, I don't think it matters very much when the children are tiny -- and Xenia, my dnephew has come home from his v. expensive pre-prep school with entirely comparable howlers in the teacher's/ assistant's writing. I think it does matter (a) if they are old enough to notice and/or copy the mistake and (b) if the teacher is not prepared to admit that he or she has made a mistake.

So "Oh yes, clever you for spotting the deliberate mistake, I was just checking you were all paying attention, ha ha" is an okay response, but defensive responses, either denying there is a problem or tearing a strip off the child for daring to criticise the teacher is not okay.

And yes, we had endless instances of this, ranging from a standoff between dd1 and her Y2 teacher over the spelling of 'balloon' (teacher though one l, dd1 thought 2), dd1 correcting her Y5 teacher over the difference between a tetrahedron and a square-based pyramid, and the infamous 'gateau-gate' incident that somebody referred to earlier, where dd1 spelled the plural as 'gateaux' and the teacher 'corrected' it to 'gateaus'. This is not a great scenario, since it results in cynical hacked-off children losing respect for the teacher.

Making mistakes is fine (as long as the person has a level of competence appropriate to the job), it's how teachers deal with their mistakes that matters.

surely you mean the 'Queen's English' if you are going to be pendantic about it.

Speaking as a teacher (and I'm being very careful with my grammar and spelling here) I think that teachers should watch their spelling and grammar, particularly apostrophes which is a real bugbear of mine. Children learn by example and, if they see bad spelling and grammar, they will assume that it is OK. I know I sound really pedantic but I feel quite strongly about this! Having said that, everyone makes mistakes and you have to take that into account as well.