Originally Posted by JJs
I think I have another pet peeve - in fact, I know I do....
atrocious spelling and incorrect English! Their, there, your, you're, we're, were, here, hear, to, two, too, basic stuff that we all learned in GRADE school. People have a major tendency to claim that it "doesn't matter, people know what you mean". Do they? I went to school in two different states and both taught English, Spelling, Grammar, all through grade school and high school - all required subjects. Why would anyone who went through school be so willing to post in a public forum and not make at least an effort to check their spelling? Why show the whole world that you don't care about how you present yourself? Who decided that "spelling doesn't count"?
I see major mistakes on news broadcasts, in newspapers, on billboards - it's getting ridiculous....
Off my soapbox now...... (and let's all hope I didn't make any spelling errors LOL)
For some CRAZY reason, we are no longer teaching spelling in upper grade levels. We are not allowed to drill grammar at all. Worksheets to teach punctuation, capitalization, and syntax are a thing of the past. I am so disgusted with how limited I am in being able to teach my students proper grammatical skills. We focus on the ideas and the content, not on whether they can spell correctly. When I talk about the need for more grammar being taught, I am told to work with each kid individually on the errors they need to correct. Hello... have you seen my class of 37 kids? How am I supposed to sit down with each kid individually and teach them grammar? What do I do with the other 36 seventh graders while I am working with one? Well, I am told that if I was a better teacher, my students would be sitting there actively engaged with their writing while I could talk to individual students. In fourteen years of being in classrooms, I have never seen a teacher able to do that for more than about ten minutes. I shudder to think about what our next generation is going to do to the English language since they don't seem to care if they can use it correctly or not.
My own children are not going to a public school because it seems we are about making the kids feel good about themselves, not providing a quality education. It is worth the $10,000+ I pay a year (just for grade school) to give them a chance to get a quality education.