The Weekly Gripe

Gripes the News
The Soapbox
Gripes in the pipes
*

School teachers, poor spelling and grammar

76 comments  Add a comment

Hello everyone!  This is my first gripe - so be gentle! Its a gripe about schools; in particular school materials and a lack of attention to detail when it comes to homework handed out by teachers.

My daughter (Aged 9) has returned from school this week with some new spellings to learn.

Teachers - a list of eight words, two were spelled incorrectly!

There's nothing unusual about that (or the fact that the instructions consist of a page photocopied from a Teacher's Book);  what IS odd is that of a list of eight words two were spelled incorrectly!  (Before anyone asks, I have double checked using the Oxford English Dictionary).

A primary school teacher is the last person I would have expected to hand out such sloppy work. Don't they at least run their texts through a spell checker before copying them and handing them out to the children?

Dictionary, spelling, thesaurus

So my gripe is:  How on earth are kids supposed to learn correct grammar and spelling when their books are wrong and even the teachers haven't noticed - or worse, perhaps can't actually see - the mistakes!

School teachers, particularly those that teach English should have a handle on spelling and should have complete control of the coursework they are using.

schools are churning out illiterate kids these days

No wonder the schools are churning out illiterate kids these days!  Bad grammar and spelling drive me insane.  Am I now to suffer at the hands of my own progeny?

By: Anonymous


Leave a comment

First Prev 1/6 Next Last

boblet

boblet

Paul it is not all bad. Although poor lecturers are unreliable, they put you on the back foot, they also make you check things. It is amazing once you have got the true facts of a matter it stays with you a bit longer.
03/02/13 boblet
-6
Terry

Terry

Teachers must have to know how to spell before they start teaching our kids.
23/09/11 Terry
2
Fred E

Fred E

My impersonator used the term spastic - however you have translated that into cerebral palsy. I must point out that not all muscle spasticity is caused by cerebral palsy.
14/09/11 Fred E
-14
Sally

Sally

It was right next to the one you did see so forgive me if I don't believe you.

I am judging you in the context of your general behaviour here so it seems to me to be a convenient lie. You have no sympathy whatsoever for vulnerable people such as the disabled and elderly. I think it was your post.
14/09/11 Sally
-11
Sally

Sally

Fred E

Why do you use the word spastic as a term of abuse?

Do you think that disabled people are a lesser form of human life?

You have said before that you have children. Any parent who teaches, by example, these attitudes to their children is a low life piece of excrement. Cerebral Palsy is a medical condition, not a joke or an insult. What a nasty excuse for a human you are - no surprise that you make excuses for the bullying of the vulnerable by pavement cyclists.
14/09/11 Sally
-7
Punctuation Pedant

Punctuation Pedant

'You're point refers to grammar'

*Your*, not 'you're', which is a contracted form of 'you are'.
14/09/11 Punctuation Pedant
-9
MikeP

MikeP

Zumba Queen :

"You're point refers to ........"

Whichever way one looks at your (not you're) misuse of English, you have no reason to criticise others. Glass houses?
14/09/11 MikeP
-8
MikeP

MikeP

".........spelling is generally considered a different "bad" "

That's English? Bad is an adjective not a noun.

You should think before you get on your high horse!
14/09/11 MikeP
-2
Zumba Queen

Zumba Queen

GG: You're point refers to grammar, spelling is generally considered a different "bad" hence the concept of spelling AND grammar. Think before you get on your high horse!
14/09/11 Zumba Queen
-4
Grammar Guru

Grammar Guru

School teachers *who* can't spell. 'That' refers to objects.
13/09/11 Grammar Guru
-6
Brendan Young

Brendan Young

Re Scholar: I said "4.75" years as a number because it is a f****** number you douchebag and so that it's easier on the eyes of others to read through it and to shorten the length of the sentence, you "Thickhead"!!! But here you go, four point seventy-five years later
06/05/11 Brendan Young
-5
scholar

scholar

Mmmmm! It seems that Brendan Young is a right "clever little dick", or is he?
That said, I do believe that there is an element of truth to his posting, for one has only to read what he has written? His english teacher may well have let him down to some degree, but by the beginning of his last year of schooling his grammar should have already been up to standard. 4.75 years later, now that is a good example of the written word, is it not?. "Master Young", whatever spare time you have had during this last four years and nine months, it would have been better spent swotting up on your grammar instead of inciting disrespect and ridicule. But then you will quite probably go through your entire life thinking that you are a "Clever Little Dick" or should it be "Dickhead"
25/04/11 scholar
-22
Brendan Young

Brendan Young

On my last year of school, at 15 years old, my long-time english teacher left to become a head-mistress at another school. She was then replaced by newly qualified male english teacher called Mr Cammock, and I started to notice how poor/sloppy his spelling was that I became the one who always corrected it the second I noticed an error (it was the best memory of my school life)!!! I always stayed on the ball for his classes everytime and had set myself a target to catch him out at least once a week!!! Everytime he spelt something wrong, I would call out "Mr Cammock, you spelt (e.g.) difficult wrong!!!" and place a mark on the tally chart I kept on him. And on one day, when I knew he was going to give us homework, I left a sheet of paper on his desk before he arrived in class saying "Mr Cammock's Homework" as a title, and below saying "Revise and study spelling and english literature". When he came into class, he went to his desk, saw the piece of paper, picked it up, read it and then smerked towards the classroom (obviously knowing it was me). And on my very last day of school, when I had to receive my certificates, my mum bought me leaving presents (chocolates) for my teachers and in Mr Cammock's card, I wrote "To Mr Cammock, (Mum thinks you deserve this for putting up with me) good luck to you and the pupils who can't spell well, From The Dictionary" and I put the tally chart (of spelling errors/corrections I kept on him, for his first year of teaching) in his card which tallied up to around 75-85 spelling errors and 2 sentencing/grammer errors!!!
Although I have left school, after 4.75 years, I have continued to get pupils, still at school, to poke at him and ask on my behalf "Brendan wants to know if your spelling has improved". I was told when one person did it, he ran down the corridor screaming, and another told me he got disciplined/given a detention when he did it, but that he would continue!!! I have even got another teacher to start poking fun at him.
19/04/11 Brendan Young
-9
toby

toby

get a life and stop being a spastic..

everybody makes mistakes.. stupid woman
17/01/11 toby
-4
Mr A

Mr A

I'm currently trying to get onto teacher training and thought some experience in the classroom would serve me good for my application so I've been working as a classroom assistant for 12 months. The first teacher I worked with had 25+ years of experience and was excellent at her job. Now I'm stuck in a classroom with a guy who can't spell simple words like cupboard, grammar, describe...literally every day I am correcting his mistakes on the whiteboard, not to mention his inability to know when to use an apostrophe. The kids are digesting this information and will presume a word is spelled correctly as this guy is the teacher. He also refuses to teach chimney sums as he thinks it's old school teaching; let the kids work it out for themselves 'method'. I am dejected and demoralised how a fool like this is in the classroom teaching future generations. There should be some kind of process other teachers and other members of staff can go through to highlight incompetence. At the moment only the headteacher can suspend or sack a teacher for incompetence. Like this is going to happen! It would only be more work to deal with and wouldn't exactly put the school in a good light. As soon as I'm finished teacher training I'm applying for jobs in private schools where I am hoping teaching standards will be higher. No wonder kids don't respect teachers as much as they used too - in some cases the kids are brighter and more intelligent, especially in the case of the dross I'm working with at the moment.
09/12/10 Mr A
-7

First Prev 1/6 Next Last

FEATURES

Gripes the News
Gripes in the pipes
The Soapbox
spinner