<p>I fear for our country.</p>
<p>When S was in third grade he was playing a game in class and had to name a town starting with the letter “U”. Well S named a town in the midwest (a few miles from my parent’s house, a town we have been to many times). The teacher refused to believe that it existed, and wouldn’t look it up, so he got MAD at S and told him he was cheating.</p>
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<p>Fine for the grade, but what about those who wanted to learn Spanish? What happened to them the next year, when they went on to Spanish 2?</p>
<p>4th grade teacher sent home a memo: repeated use of “there” when it should have been “their”…</p>
<p>and, yes, this said teacher was supposed to be teaching English (as well as other subjects)…</p>
<p>I still remember my kids’ 4th grade teacher who would have the kids trade their essays with each other to “look them over.” None of the kids had any instruction on what a sentence was or any other “conventions.” They got mad because I got a librarian from a private school come over & teach them how to use the internet and make a webpage. She was embarassed that people might actually look at the webpage & realize how little their kids had learned over the year so she had to learn some English and help correct some of the glaringly bad grammar. She vowed not to let parents into the classroom in the future as it was “too much work.” </p>
<p>S left the school after that year–they had assigned him to the teacher in the school notorious for anger management issues (i.e. he was always blowing up at his students & everything else).</p>
<p>Also, in 2nd grade, S had a student teacher who allowed a parent to come into their classroom & tell all the students that THERE IS NO SANTA CLAUS and Christmas is Jesus’ birthday. S was OK was unphased, but I think it caused a lot o upheaval when the other kids went home that day.</p>
<p>VeryHappy - Actually, this was Spanish 3 (not honors). The next year was Spanish 4. At the beginning of the year the teacher asked, “OK, who had Mr. Incompetent last year?” 1/3 of D’s class raised their hand. Each new unit they began, the teacher would spend a day or so running a quick “review” of last year’s material - which she knew was new material for that group of kids. D ended up with a B, I believe (she had been getting A+s in Mr Incompetent’s class the year before).</p>
<p>Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? I watched once, and saw a male teacher who was positive that a chicken was a mammal. Last time I ever watched that show.</p>
<p>Lucky for the kids that the teacher was sensitive to Mr. Incompetent and tried to make up for it. I had a few experiences where nothing could make up for it. (In graduate school, no less – where, for a half-credit six-week course, the teacher only showed up three times. My grade was fine, but I was really angry because I had a particular interest in the subject matter – but I wasn’t allowed to re-take the course, nor did I have time in my schedule. Just a painful hole in my knowledge that remains to this day.)</p>
<p>My D was given the same math book AND same material two years in a row (she got “Bs” every year). She was going to have to do it again for the 3rd year but we had her take summer school math at an elite private school where she got a “B.” She was FINALLY allowed to advance, only because she had completed the course at that private school for $600. They admitted she would have had to repeat the **exact same course & material **if she had taken it ANYWHERE else, including at the summer school of the public school she was attending or any other private school! Needless to say, she was behind in math due to this. </p>
<p>To this day, we scratch our heads and wonder how and if kids can navigate out of this endless loop. We transferred her into that private school the following year (entering as a freshman) so she wouldn’t get stuck in more endless loops. :(</p>
<p>Math can be hard for some elementary teachers. In my son’s 5th grade class the teacher could not work out some math problems she could only give the answer that was in the TE. She later moved to 2nd grade. I subbed once in a 6th grade class where the teacher crossed off the correct answer to a problem in the TE and wrote an incorrect answer. I worked out the problem on the board with the correct answer and left it there LOL!</p>
<p>My S came home with math problems none of us could do–he did the majority & asked us to help with those he couldn’t do. Those we attempted we did get wrong. He was only in the 7th grade at the time. He never asked us for help with math & we stopped wondering why. LOL!</p>
<p>I had a French teacher in ninth grade who pronounced the title of the French national anthem incorrectly (she said “Mar-sell-ezz”).</p>
<p>My son had a teacher who insisted that the word “verb” was a verb, and marked him wrong when he said otherwise. My husband called her–the only phone call he made to a teacher during the whole 12 years.</p>
<p>My son once had a long-term sub who wasn’t happy about grading essays, so he just wrote -3 or -5 or whatever on the top of each essay without indicating why those points were lost.</p>
<p>When the principal told him that he had to give some indication why the points were being deducted, he said, “grading is an art; it can’t be explained.” LOL</p>
<p>I doubt he read any of the essays.</p>
<p>In 1998 our state instituted competency tests and communication proficiency tests for teachers, in order to get their license and be allowed to teach particular subjects.</p>
<p>The teachers’ union kicked up a huge fuss at the time, and the tests were imposed over their strenuous objection. </p>
<p>Maybe they actually accomplished something, I don’t recall anything nearly as heinous as some of the stuff listed here.</p>
<p>I sometimes have trouble helping my 6th grade daughter with her math. Not because I can’t solve the problem, but I can’t comprehend the method they teach her to solve the problem. I don’t want to teach her my method, and have her marked down for not solving it properly. 
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<p>S2 is awesome in math – always has been. He absolutely hated grade-school math where you had to explain how you got the answer. For him, it was just plain intuitive, and he wound up explaining things like, “To determine the answer to 2 X 2, I multiplied two times two.” Made him absolutely nuts.</p>
<p>had to write math answers in sentences in 6th grade for some idiotic reason. Math genius dysgraphic daughter says, “Do you need me to write this in a sentence in order to show I know the math or just because the book says, “write this in sentence?”” Teacher ponders and says, “Don’t be a smart alec.”</p>
<p>Fortunately they sent her to the local college for math the next year. Looooong year.</p>
<p>It can be really tough for our kids who are intuitive to explain how they get things, but it can be an important skill for when they are on a team and have to explain their thought processes to others. My S, the EE, has also found it painful to have to articulate things he finds SO obvious. </p>
<p>D has a different issue. She is creative/artistic and sees and arrives at math solutions differently from many/most folks. It is challenging for her to explain how she gets her correct answers and it takes someone with an open mind to understand her explanations.</p>
<p>I always worry about those kids whose parents don’t know any better than the teacher!</p>
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<p>What, you’ve never verbed anyone?</p>
<p>In eighth grade during a History lesson our teacher, a nun, told us that during WWII there was also another, “Secret War”. It was fought around the Pacific Ocean, and against the Chinese. </p>
<p>It was only years later that we learned that these nuns only in their early 20’s had only a high school education from their home Italy. And many of them had been forced into the nunnery by parents or authorities for their questionable behavior as young girls. My fifth grade nun teacher quit while I was a freshmen in college and became an exotic dancer in a men’s club. I know this because a bunch of her former students, both guys and girls, went to see if it was true. </p>
<p>It was.</p>