MY KID'S TEACHER

My Kid's Teacher | May 4, 2003 | Luis Gonzalez

[Luis Gonzalez]

Just before going to bed tonight, as I kissed my oldest boy good night, he perked up and reminded me of the note his teacher had sent home on Friday. I assured him that I would read it, and tucked him in.

I knew that the note was about the upcoming School Book Fair, he attended his first one last year, and it was a great experience for him. It was the first time he was trusted with money to spend all on his own.

He is a First grader with Third Grade reading skills, I was an avid reader as a kid, and every time I see him sitting with a book on his lap, I feel like I'm walking on air.

I went downstairs and looked for the note, I wanted to see what was expected of him, and how payment for the books would be handled.

I have copied the note word by word below, the note written, and sent home, by the person who is teaching my boy to read and write.

I have left the particulars out for obvious reasons.

I am sending the note to Tallahassee, and asking for this teacher's removal.

[annyokie]

In the vernacular, "It don't matter." The parents who show up for th conferences are those who don't need too.

[Consort]

You doesn't has to calls her Mrs. #####. You could calls her Mrs. # or you could calls her Mrs. ##, or you could calls her Mrs. ###, but you doesn't has to calls her Mrs. #####.

[AJ504]

9th Grade, September 1971, First Day of Class, Subject: English, 1st Period...my first year in the public education environment.

I could not believe my ears at the moronic behavior of my peers. In addition, the subject matter was identical to what was taught in my 6th Grade class in a private school.

Forward to June 2001. After years of griping, my daughter receives her private school diploma.

She wonders how her college classmates ever graduated high school!

Home school your child or pay a PROFESSIONAL to educate them at a private school. Don't sacrifice your children!!!!!

I dun gud, ain't I?

(Disclaimer: I am the product of publicly educated parents. All spelling and grammatical errors should be forgiven. It must be ADD.)

[Luis Gonzalez]

Landed in Heathrow (of course) worked our way to Liverpool, spent a couple of great days in Woodstock, and Yorkshire (check out the excavations underneath the Cathedral) then back to London.

[I still care]

I can't resist it. This article came out about our homeschooling group in the newspaper today, and I have to show it off. :)

http://www.sptimes.com/2003/05/04/Pasco/Homeschooling__Drop_t.shtml

[tuna_battle_slight_return]

"The majority of people graduating today read and write on a third grade level or lower."

Do you have a source? I'm not disagreeing, just stunned.

[nopardons]

Yes, frankly I do. There are more errors, than have thus far been stated. Since she in obviously incapable of writing English correctly, she can't teach anyone else how it should be done.

[supercat]

take out Media Center and replace it with Lie-barry.

Oh, is that a media center where all the truthful books have been replaced with the likes of Heather has Two Mommies?

[FirstTomato]

the grammar police on FR that defend this teacher would likely be the ones shredding a freeper for their comments. Irony

I have posted on internet boards for years and have never criticized anyone's grammar. I've never personally observed "grammar police" at work on these boards, though I've seen "spelling police", whom I find especially petty.

I'd rather exchange messages with someone who is forthright, honest and has something to say, albeit a poor speller, than with someone who is adroit at spelling and grammar but not a critical thinker. Just my humble opinion. (oops! that's not a complete sentence!)

[Kevin Curry]

The teacher's note is a direct reflection of her skills as a TEACHER.

It's evidence of her skills (or lack thereof). But I wouldn't judge her to be incompetent on the basis of this one note. I have a graduate degree and my own posts at FR probably have an average of at least two errors per post. When I make mistakes it is usually because I have typed the post very fast and failed to review what I have written. But I am fully capable of composing complex and grammatically correct notes, essays, and posts without errors.

I am not quick to judge her note, because in haste I have written things just as bad.

[Eva]

I was helping the first grade class in the local grade school read a play from one of their Scholastic Readers and I noticed that the play was full of grammatical errors. This is part of the problem. I know that it was artistic lisence, but first graders don't understand the difference.

[nopardons]

ROTFLMSO

[Luis Gonzalez]

I'm glad we agree on this, I wasn't sure whether I had cause for concern or not.

After all, it's a second language to me.

[Semi Civil Servant]

From "Less Than Words Can Say" By Richard Mitchell:

"There was a young lady in Pennsylvania who was incensed when she found two typographical errors and even an error in grammar in her local newspaper. Fortunately for the course of Western culture, she knew the right thing to do, and she did it. She fired off a stiff note of protest to the editor. And who better to do it? She was, after all, a schoolteacher, and rightly mindful of the baleful influence of the popular media on her impressionable charges.

Among other things, she wrote: "In writing I teach my third graders to proofread their work and I don’t expect them to find all mistakes. But, let’s face it Fellows you are not 8 and 9 year olds and this artical should have never gotten past you let alone printed in the form it was." That’s what she wrote. Those are her words, her syntax, her punctuation, her capitalization, her spelling. Her spelling of "artical" appears in three more places, so it’s no fluke, and in one place the word "allowed" comes out as "aloud."

This kind of ignorance in publik skool teachers is, unfortunately, more common than we would like to believe.

[terilyn]

Oh please! It's an elementary school teacher that cannot type a coherent sentence or paragraph! Would you want this person teaching your children to read and write?

[tuna_battle_slight_return]

My father's choir performs at St. Paul's and Westminster. I've been to London twice. I visited London twice before I had ever been to NYC, even though I was born in Ohio. Strange. I still prefer Chicago over any city I've ever visited.

[Luis Gonzalez]

Great...it's an epidemic.

[supercat]

I am not quick to judge her note, because in haste I have written things just as bad.

I'd say a friendly little chat with the teacher might clear things up. If the teacher says "Oh, my goodness, I must have been half asleep when I wrote that. I'm so sorry," then I wouldn't be worried. If, however, the response is "Picky picky, do you have any tissue boxes or not?" then I'd tell my child to just ignore the teacher during that class and teach her English at home.

[jwalsh07]

What am I missing?

An edumacation?

[tuna_battle_slight_return]

"Yes, frankly I do. There are more errors, than have thus far been stated. Since she in obviously incapable of writing English correctly, she can't teach anyone else how it should be done."

Bingo! Thank you.