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?

Excellent point Alibaldi. English grammar is the foundation for learning other languages well. One of my friends moved to France for work, as an adult, speaking no French, and was taught by someone (now a friend) who taught French children in primary schools. Eventually I had to send my friend an English grammar textbook as, not having been taught grammar herself, she could not understand the way in which she was being taught French. All other European school systems I have come across teach children grammar in a very structured manner (for example, daily dictations in French schools). What I don't understand is why British schools moved away from doing this? I know I went to an old-fashioned school, but I think it has stood me in good stead and I often meet people who find written communication very hard precisely because they were not taught "boring" things like grammar. In oral communication you can make yourself understood anyway - in written communication it is far harder. MN is full of examples of misunderstandings resulting from ambiguous phrasing - I am sure there are several in this thread!

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

so this wasn't being conciliatory enough? if it wasn't i apologise.

"it was never personal btw." at 1.52 pm
right after you gave me a telling off.

Back to the original point, I would let this specific example go partly because I couldn't think of a single way to raise the subject without causing upset - though it would irk me. But I would definitely mention it if the mistake was in the child's set homework and - worse - if a child's correct use of an apostrophe was marked as wrong.

Mind you, I remember my son at five saying to a little girl in his class who said, 'I throwed it', 'no, it's 'I threw it, not I throwed it'." Which was slightly embarassing. I told him it wasn't polite to correct other people. All of which proves he gets his pedantry from home, but I do try to rein it in.

My Aunty Margaret now long retired was a latin and english teacher at a private school in Portsmouth. Her class of 15 year old girls were forever using obscene language learnt from the sailors so she actually took a lesson on how to spell these obscenities - her thoughts being if they were going to use this language then they might as well know how to spell it! I thought this was really funny!

I don't see why it's acceptable for teachers to make spelling and grammar mistakes. It wouldn't be acceptable to say 2+2=5 would it? Or to say that the Battle of Hastings was 1065.

Why are typing mistakes allowed in plain English when they'd just be plain wrong in chemistry or physics?

In my line of work (yes, I can hear you yawning at the back) getting a single character wrong can cause millions worth of damage. So I have to be careful - it's my job.

A teacher's job is to teach - to teach the correct facts and that includes spelling and grammar whether it is their subject or not.

I look ill-educated if I put typos and spelling mistakes in my correspondence at work and the same applies to teachers.

I would point out spelling mistakes and would also point out spelling and typing mistakes in letters sent back from the school, even if they were from the school secretary. Any letter home reflects the school and the standards of the school.

No excuse IMO.

Have logged on and read this thread as i have just finished marking my final set of books for the night (time is about midnnight) - next time you see the odd spelling error in your child's book perhaps it was because their teacher was marking their book late after a day at work, returning home to cooking/cleaning/putting kids to bed etc etc

must now return to all marked books and double check my spelling in my comments incase i've made a mistake! - perhaps next time i should take the easy option and just tick the work and say well done - much easier and quicker

note to self - must write out 'in case' 100 times

kiskidee, we'll just have to agree to disagree I think.

Let me just reiterate that I used to be a teacher myself and know very well what a tiring and demanding job it is.

Still don't like bad spelling, grammar or punctuation though!

Babyboo1&2, please don't take the short option ! I'm sure your comments are much appreciated by both pupils and parents and they will certainly know the difference between a teacher like you who has taken the time to comment properly on their work and one who has just ticked it through. No one is saying teaching isn't a demanding job.

On the other hand, there are often occasions when I, and no doubt many other people, have to work into the small hours after putting children to bed and that still wouldn't be seen as much of an excuse for poor spelling or grammar by colleagues reading the work the next morning.

i agree with you wholly artyfishymeau.

now let's see.

Teacher's have a workload agreement negotiated with the gov't and all the unions. It states that teachers do not have to do administrative tasks such as writing letters home. it is the job of a secretary.

If you go and correct a teacher - it should be the secretary's mistake. Not hers. I agree that all secretaries should also have perfect command of written English too and type correctly. But it ain't going to happen before any of us retire. Now would a teacher look at you and say, it wasn't my mistake, it was the secretary's? Not likely. So now you have undermined her for something she didn't do.

Secondly, if all pieces of correspondence home had to wait for a secretary to type, that would just be laughable and that is another thread more suited for a teaching messageboard.

Now, let's assume for a moment that this teacher actually wrote this note herself since it is most likely she did otherwise it would not get home in time. She made a mistake she shouldn't have and it would grate on my nerve equally and make me think all sorts about the dumbing down in education and possibly about the gov't paying peanuts so get monkeys, etc, etc..

Did it impact on the meaning she intended? Did it impact on your dd's learning? Is it endemic in what she does and you know this because of frequent interaction with her i.e, you see her in the classroom often enough to know this?
Do you know what kind of day she had and what she is coping with at home? Are you in the position to, in this instance, teach her how to use apostrophes properly as a part of your conversation or to arrange with the board of governors to have a general INSET for all staff at her school on the fundamentals of grammar?

If you answered 'no' to some of these then all I can see you doing is undermining her. This kind of mistake and knee jerk reaction by parents is the sort of attrition that teachers have in their day to day lives. The one little pointing out is insignificant and she may be able to take it on the chin, laugh and get on with life, even be grateful for your well intentioned assistance but after years of attrition, it makes teachers jaded and unenthusiastic to say the least.

It can make her say in th long run, balls to christingle, a day out to the museum, panto, etc. I don't have the time to write letters. It is not part of my job. (knowing how slowly the turn around is to wait for a secretary to do it) I can only see the children being poorer for it, not the parent.

I say these things as a holder of degrees in English and Linguistics. I have taught English and I'm currently teaching two foriegn languages in the UK. English is not the language I spoke at home while growing up. My first language is a language which is unwritten and threatened with extinction.

I would love primary students to come into secondary school with a competence in grammar as it would make their second language acquistion so much easier. It ain't happening and I accept that. I also accept that the majority of adults inside and outside the teaching profession do not have a satisfactory command of the grammar of their own language.

So if a teacher's mistake is not crucial to the facts that my child needs at the time, I wouldn't point it out to her. I have bigger fish to fry and so does she.

PS. I love it when my Yr8 Set 3 boys point out a mistake I make as they are doolally as anything. It tells me that they are enthusiastic and in tune.

Many teachers work a 60 hour week. At this point in the term they are really tired. Rather than putting down teachers, prehaps you should offer to help.

Some people clearly have too much time on their hands

Perhaps proofreading and spellcheck use could be taught to anyone who has to send 'notes home'?

yes, the secretaries - who should type these notes home.

have you used spell check on this note St. Leger? Did it give you the correct version that was needed?

It's very sad reading this. I'm a teacher and at the moment I am home sick with a chest infection, on a million different inhalers and antibiotics, and propped up on the sofa with cushions as I can't lie down.

I've logged onto mumsnet to cheer myself up and yet again there is another thread about teachers.

Yes, If I have made a mistake I would really love someone to point it out (parent, teacher, ta), but it is just that, a mistake.

Why does every education thread on here turn into an anti-teacher/school thread?

Hope you feel better soon PanicPants.

The reason everyone gets at teachers is because, as we all know, they get to school at 8.59 a.m., have a 20 min tea break, an hour for lunch, leave at 3.01 p.m. then go home and put their feet up and have 13 weeks holiday a year doing nothing.

I suspect you know different.

PanicPants,

I hope you are better soon. I'm sorry to hear that you are so ill. I have great admiration for any teacher. I only got half way through a PGCE so I know how hard it is. I wish that these parents who moan about teachers would stand up in a classroom and see what its really like. I expect that they would last an even shorter length of time than I did!!

At the risk of sounding like a stuck record:

I was a teacher myself, I never intended this to be a teacher-bashing thread.

I have great admiration for all teachers, I don't think I could face going back.

But I still think that people working in schools (teachers, secretaries, teaching assistants) should endeavour to write correctly.

emkana, on another conciliatory note: what annoyed me greatly on this thread are some of the say first say 20 posts after you who wrote things like sticking a candle/christingle up the teacher's arse etc. I know it was a 'joke' of sorts by them but think of the attitude towards teachers which makes the avg person think it is ok to make 'jokes' like that on a message board which a lot of teachers read. your op was just an opener for me to speak about a wider issue. as i said already, it was never personal.

and i think teachers, secretaries etc do endeavour to spell and use grammar correctly. i just don't think they are going to get it right all the time. and i am sure you recognise that.

Well, I never correct the dreadful spelling and grammatical errors that parents make in their communications to me. Nor do I point them out to their offspring. If the poor teacher is anything like the rest of us, he/she probably knocked the note up on the computer during lunch break, whilst trying to mark 30 maths jotters, prepare a painting task for the afternoon and stuff a sandwich down his/her throat, all the while hoping that there would be time to nip to the loo for the first time that day before the bell rang.
That said, superfluous apostrophes are a pet peeve of mine and do set my teeth on edge.

Article in the Times today.

I also have a bug-bear about bad spelling, grammar and punctuation....... To the extent that I picked up on a spelling mistake on the consent form I was signing while high on entonox before my emergency c-section....
p.s. if there are any mistakes here, my excuse is having a very wriggly 19wk DD on my lap !!!!