AIBU to take issue with English Teachers' bad grammar in a letter home?

[missismac]

Didn't really want to post this in AIBU as it's fairly specific.

DS is in year 7 (he's 11) at a local comp. He's my 3rd child through the school. It's served well (so far) for the others & I'm generally happy with what it does for my kids.

However, we've received a letter home today praising DS2's progress in English. It details his hard work and last term and states;

"As a result he has stood out as one of the most positive, hardworking students in the class."

"has stood out"??!! WTF - how is that ever English, and should I ask his teacher about it?

I feel I am being pedantic about this, but on the other hand, correct grammar matters. DS struggles with reading & writing - if I can't trust that his teachers are teaching him correctly then how can I be confident in the education he's getting.

Should I follow this up, or am I making a fuss over nothing?

Crying laughing here. Stop please. I'm too weak not to click on this.

(x-posted my lecture with about 10 people, as MN wouldn't let me post it. Too pedantic even for MN, clearly )

No apology necessary AuldAlliance. That was very comrehensive.

I'm still rofling at balloonslayer's staff room wall comment.

AuldAlliance, to some of us that stuff is better than TOWIE

Aha, so without the time qualifier, in this example, it has to be present perfect. Makes sense now. Love a bit of grammar pedantry!

I'm with BalloonSlayer. Go in, send a letter. Please? Then tell us which school it is do we can get someone to check the notice board

In fact, why not draft the letter & then post it here for us to check? Pretty please?

(btw, before anyone comments, 'in' = 'on' in my last post)

And do = so, presumably?

tsk, tsk...

Time qualifiers often locate actions in a specific moment in the past, thereby requiring the preterite (action finished, no connection to present expressed):

He stood out as an exceptional pupil last year/in 2011/when he was younger.

The present perfect is often found with time qualifying expressions that refer to a past-present link (e.g. for/since)

He's stood out as an exceptional pupil since the start of term/for the last few months.

But time qualifiers are clues, they are not the determining factors. It is the perception of time that is important.

Glad some of you are enjoying this, I don't usually have quite such an appreciative audience, nor do I usually get to spout this stuff in English.

I do think that a letter should be sent, it'd definitely be framed and placed in a strategic position in the staffroom. The OP's son would have to bear the consequences for the rest of his school career, however, even though his grammar may be OK, since he has an apparently competent teacher.

(What's TOWIE? )

Love it Auld, thank you. Nearly all of my grammar comprehension comes from learning French, which means my English is not as good as it could be. Enjoy the whole subject of language construction though & one of my most treasured possessions is my huge Chambers Dictionary.

Might a namechange be in order for the OP?

ILoveMultiWordVerbsInThePresentPerfect has a nice je ne sais quoi about it?

Can I point out that Pope in fact wrote 'A little learning is a dangerous thing':

A little learning is a dangerous thing ;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.

at bucharest

Wazzzzz YABU? AIBU?

PostBellumBugsy, this is why it's a pity English grammar isn't taught (or wasn't - maybe things have changed in the UK?) at school. Learning the grammar of one language only partly helps with understanding your own.

The present perfect is one of key areas where French & English differ, since the tense doesn't exist in French. They use the present or the passé composé in contexts where English uses the present perfect.

LOL at the catchy name change. Think my lecture has scared off the pedantic OP.

Please, please, please write a letter of complaint, just on the off chance that your child's English teacher is my sister. She could add it her collection of spurious complaint letters that we like to read and laugh at when we've had a few glasses of wine.

Oh bugger. I blame my iPhone. Tsk. And on a pedantry thread as well.

If it makes you feel any better ds1 (Y2) came home with his term curriculum notes the other day.

On the back was a list of things you can do at home to help with two spelling mistakes in the first three points.

The first of these was 'daily spelling practise' (sic) . Of all the points to make you would have thought they would have got the spelling right in that one!

What makes it worse is that the same mistake was there on the back of last term's sheet too. I pointed it out to the teacher last term (who was glad to be told as it was the head of year that had done the sheet, not her). She was going to pass the message on but they obviously forgot all about it didn't check all the sheets (lots of copying and pasting)

I love that AuldAlliance doesn't know what TOWIE is. Let's make sure no-one tells her. She needs to remain unsullied and protect her position above these attacks on our collective intellect so she can carry on fighting the good fight.

I don't know either.

At least I can blame my ignorance on the fact that I live abroad.

I fear I may have now created an MN image of myself as an old pedantic fuddy duddy wielding dictionaries and grammar books, when in fact I am of course a chic, sleek, fun creature. Honest.

You are the untouched, elevated above popular 'culture', and I bow to you.

Do, do.

Erm....YAB a bit U!