Teacher Literacy

Parent Cafe
1

<p>This is the hot story here right now, been in all the newspapers and on the local news channels. There’s a major debate going on as to whether the dean should be excused for his poor writing skills because he was trying to correct an out-of-control situation. Personally, I’m a little concerned that this man is an educator. Any thoughts?</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2007/05/04/2007-05-04_this_is_unexcecpable.html[/url]”>http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2007/05/04/2007-05-04_this_is_unexcecpable.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/05/03/2007-05-03_unexcecpable-5.html[/url]”>http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/05/03/2007-05-03_unexcecpable-5.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

2

<p>They forgot to highlight “senior activates list.”</p>

<p>We’ve had chuckles for years and years over letters sent home by not only the Principals and Vice Principals, but our Superintendent.</p>

<p>Then there was our high school newspaper, in which we counted at least fifteen mistakes. I think that was the first and only edition. Too much like work.</p>

<p>Things started to really go downhill in the late nineties.</p>

<p>The bottom line is that they’re lazy and they just don’t care.</p>

<p>But day in and day out we’re treated to stories in our local newspaper about how great our schools are–mostly community-service related stories. They’re very big on having the kids raise money for every cause under the sun. Makes everyone feel so special.</p>

<p>I pulled my second son out.</p>

3

<p>My older D had a pre-school assistant teacher (the woman did not make it through the school year) who didn’t know how to spell “and” - she would write “an” instead. </p>

<p>Wow, those errors were egregious. I would not want him in our schools.</p>

4

<p>There is a real outrage on the part of many in the specific school that the man should be criticized because he’s a nice man and is just trying to help. I’m not so sure about that. I can be judgmental and tough, but I simply can not imagine how he came to be certified.</p>

5

<p>Hadn’t seen this. Yes, I think it’s unacceptable. At first I thought he’d blame a typist or secretary (not that THAT would make it any better. Being in a hurry isn’t much of an excuse, either. Children definitely pick up on these things and lose respect for those adults who expect better from them. </p>

<p>Maybe have him sit down and take the verbal and writing sections of the SAT…</p>

6

<p>Make the man do compulsory summer school. And then have him pass a standardized state test before he’s allowed to collect a paycheck.</p>

7

<p>When my kids were in middle school, we used to sit down together and correct the grammar, spelling, and punctuation in all the notices the principal sent home. It was quite entertaining. (We are nerds, obviously.) I was often tempted to mail the notices back to her with all the corrections, but I never did.</p>

8

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<p>Looks like the students’ grammar is no better than the dean’s. Guess you can’t really blame them when the teachers don’t know how to spell or punctuate, either…</p>

9

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I don’t know what the ‘certification’ exams are like but I agree with ‘hereshoping’ that there are a lot of school teachers and admin staff (principal, counselors, etc.) who have awful written skills - sometimes at a lower level than what should be the minimum for a student in that school.</p>

<p>My D received a college recommendation from a HS history teacher (who put an emphasis in the class on writing essays) that was so full of basic errors we just threw it away (we were luckily able to see it before sending it).</p>

<p>Of course, the teacher unions are adamantly opposed to any kind of qualification testing. I wonder if it’s because they’d lose a large base of their dues-paying clientele. There are also many outstanding teachers and admin staff out there who are quite capable. It’s too bad their good work is diluted by some of the people who really don’t have the basic skills that should be required for those jobs.</p>

10

<p>My daughter has now taken five certification tests so she can teach in most states and she still has one left. The minimal amount of tests in most states for teacher certification is three tests. Once she starts teaching she will be required to keep taking classes. Here are some practice questions from a basic grammer praxis test: <a href=“http://www.testprepreview.com/modules/grammarpart1.htm[/url]”>http://www.testprepreview.com/modules/grammarpart1.htm&lt;/a&gt; The tests that education major take in their senior year are similar to SAT’s and different states have different scores that they will accept. </p>

<p>There are obviously bad teachers out there (and some obviously promoted despite basic grammer qualifications) but let’s not tar them all. Especially if one of them is mine!</p>

11

<p>My D’s 11th grade Honors English teacher told class on day 1 that she wasn’t grading spelling, punctuation, or grammar. To date, the class has written 2 (not a typo) essays and no papers. Ask me if I’m surprised.</p>

12

<p>Son had a very nice elementary school teacher, but he simply could not spell. He corrected my son’s spelling. He corrected my son’s spelling to show him that “butterfly” is spelled as 2 words, “butter” and “fly”. There were many other amazing examples, but this was one that I never forgot.</p>

13

<p>In our district, candidate teachers must sit in a room for 45 minutes and write an essay. </p>

<p>This allows our district supervisors to determine for themselves whether the candidate can think clearly and whether the candidate actually has a reasonable command of the English language and its rules of grammar, spelling and punctuation.</p>

14

<p>wow, that’s almost as bad at the school principal at some new york school that said “Working on spelling in school is pointless, you can always have the program spell check everything”.</p>

<p>Wow, what college did he go to?</p>

15

<p>Well, frankly, I wonder what his diagnosed learning disabilities are. I know of an excellent math teacher who is dyslexic. He can’t spell, but his math is good, and his openness with the students about his dyslexia has given many students encouragement. </p>

<p>But even he has the brains not to send anything out without having someone else look at it.</p>

16

<p>I think we’ve all been there on the teacher who may be good in their subject (if it isn’t English) but unclear on spelling and grammar. I remember one teacher when my son was in about 5th grade. Son was a very good writer and thinker even at that age and would sometimes use words and idioms that the teacher evidently did not grasp the meaning of. (Yes, she was a native English speaker.)</p>

17

<p>IMHO, there’s no excuse for that kind of embarrassment. If you have a disability, then you must take advantage of the accommodations you require in order to do your job properly. Period.</p>

18

<p>If you’ve worked in a school and understand the stress and hair-trigger timing with which you must respond to events while meeting all legal requirements of reporting to parents, you’d know. </p>

<p>If you have a learning disability, you’d know that under stress, the skills break down and you regress in speech, writing, processing or whatever else might be the disability.</p>

<p>I suspect this Dean could only have gotten as far as he did by having a system for addressing his own problem, when the timing is not so tight.</p>

<p>I could imagine he would normally have a “secret weapon” person who checks anything written before it’s sent out, under normal circumstances. But given the late-afternoon food-fight and the need to report same-day, if that editor wasn’t nearby the Dean chose to act protectively for the children. He REPORTED ON TIME.</p>

<p>He might have stellar qualities within the school that make him an outstanding
Dean in other ways. </p>

<p>When I taught in stress-filled low income elementary classrooms, I had to scribble out all kinds of behavior notes, “social contract planner book” entries at the end of each working day while the kids were still acting up and out the door. I was trying to include their last activities so held off until departure to write these short notes. I can spell, but was always terribly embarassed that my own handwriting, under pressure, did not represent the handsome printing we learned in class. I think the two situations compare.</p>

<p>A teacher or administrator is not a machine, but a human being. The community would teach their children a better lesson to point to the possibility that this man achieved high position, even with a disabling condition. The man isn’t barking that he’s disabled so he must have pride. I’d prefer this response, than belittling an administrator who had just quelled a cafeteria fight. (Could YOU do that?) </p>

<p>Personally, I’d have harsher words for the students who threw food (their bad choice), when others have nothing to eat. I"d leave the gloves off for the administrator who had a bad moment (made the right choice, given the predicament).</p>

<p>He did his job; did the students do theirs?</p>

19

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It must have left an impression on me since I still remember it but I can recall correcting a teacher’s spelling and pronunciation in 2nd grade once. The teacher looked up the word (mischievous) and ended up agreeing with me (but a lot of people get this word wrong). </p>

<p>Regarding teachers/admins with a low level of grammar capabilities, it seems to me that there should be a certain base level of competence required in a teacher and it should be to at least a 12th grade level regardless of the grade taught. I don’t think it’s asking much.</p>

20

<p>UCdad, I agree. If grammar is unlearnable for someone, teaching is the wrong profession.</p>

<p>I have worked with personable, brilliant, kind professors who give handouts to students with grammar in it which would flunk a freshman comp course–and what do I say to my students when I teach that course to them–they need to know it, but a teacher doesn’t?</p>