Vent: teachers with poor spelling/grammar

amother

Goldenrod

Wed, Nov 16 2016, 1:12 pm

I'm noticing, increasingly, that teachers within the yeshiva school system can't spell, use punctuation, or use grammar appropriately. If you're a teacher, you NEED to know the difference between "your" and "you're," "their/they're/there," and "it's/its". You need to know when to use a comma, and the past tense of English verbs. Please. If the English language is not your strong suit, don't go into teaching! Are the yeshivas putting out these uneducated teachers, who are then going and teaching our own kids?? So frustrating.

MagentaYenta

Wed, Nov 16 2016, 2:59 pm

out-of-towner wrote:

Hate to say it, but I presume that most don't have college degrees, and I don't mean a BTL.

And people pay upwards of $10K a year for tuition. SMH

amother

Apricot

Wed, Nov 16 2016, 4:40 pm

This took place over 35 years ago. Our jr. high class did a play and the girl who wrote the note that was sent to all the classes, 1-12, was a gifted artist but not a great speller. Our principal caught it before day's end and had us go to all the classes to retrieve the notes.
Chaval al d'avdin u'dlo mishtakchin. (For much, much more than that.)

seeker

Wed, Nov 16 2016, 8:10 pm

amother wrote:

That's really harsh. There are some very gifted teachers with weaknesses in specific areas and I think students stand to learn a lot from people who overcome personal obstacles like that.
I would propose instead "If the English language is not your strong suit, learn to use tools and resources to polish your presentation, and have someone proofread anything that might be used to judge you."

dina22

Wed, Nov 16 2016, 8:12 pm

seeker wrote:

I strongly disagree. How can they educate properly if they themselves are not properly educated?

tigerwife

Wed, Nov 16 2016, 8:19 pm

dina22 wrote:

I strongly disagree. How can they educate properly if they themselves are not properly educated?

Personally, I don't believe this has a direct correlation with education. Spelling in particular comes more naturally to some people while others need to really rely on a dictionary (or spell-check these days!). You can have some very smart and well-educated people who are simply more prone to grammatical errors. That's not to say that education doesn't help; it certainly makes a difference.

amother

Turquoise

Wed, Nov 16 2016, 11:15 pm

tigerwife wrote:

Knowing the difference between "your" and "you're" is absolutely a matter of education. They are different words. Of course you can be smart and poorly educated. But in that case, you should not be teaching.

Teomima

Wed, Nov 16 2016, 11:16 pm

tigerwife wrote:

If they are truly educated, they will understand that this is their weak spot and learn to compensate through the tools you mentioned (dictionary, etc.) I agree with* the OP, if my children are taught by a teacher with basic spelling and grammar errors, they themselves will develop the same poor linguistic habits. How can you expect your child to learn proper spelling and grammar if their teacher makes the same errors?

*Whoops, see what I did there? I made a mistake myself, accidentally leaving a word out. But I caught it and edited it. Unfortunately I know teachers who do not do the same.

Last edited by Teomima on Thu, Nov 17 2016, 12:08 am; edited 1 time in total

amother

Pearl

Wed, Nov 16 2016, 11:49 pm

Along the same lines, it irks me to no end to see how certain rabbis misspell on public forums like facebook. I get that these rabbis probably focused on limudei kodesh most of their lives, but they are still native English speakers, and it just looks really BAD when they misspell or use grammar inappropriately. Their wives do the same, and they don't have the excuse of not learning enough English in school! Just a subpar education.
It just looks bad when a rabbi or rebbetzin write 'its awesome' or 'lots of kid's attended'. Bad enough they are trying so hard to be cool with slang despite the black hat, at least don't make dumb mistakes on social media!

saw50st8

Thu, Nov 17 2016, 4:18 am

amother wrote:

What grade and subject?

My son's hebrew teacher is Israeli and not a fluent english speaker. She does a great job but there are definitely gaps in her knowledge. She can communicate effectively and that's all that matters.

I don't care if my kid's kindergarten teacher is a great speller either. There are other more pressing factors.

saw50st8

Thu, Nov 17 2016, 4:20 am

amother wrote:

Some of that is autocorrect. It's Facebook and I rarely proofread. I don't expect other people to be perfect either.

DrMom

Thu, Nov 17 2016, 4:35 am

In principle, I agree that an elementary or high school teacher in the US should know basic English and grammar.

In practice, I would be willing to cut some slack to a teacher who is teaching a foreign language or computer programming, etc.

Teomima

Thu, Nov 17 2016, 4:38 am

saw50st8 wrote:

My son's hebrew teacher is Israeli and not a fluent english speaker. She does a great job but there are definitely gaps in her knowledge. She can communicate effectively and that's all that matters.

I think it certainly matters what the subject is, but only with regards to language. I have no problem with an Israeli Hebrew teacher who has errors in English. But if a teacher is teaching a subject in English, I expect fluent language skills.

saw50st8 wrote:

Some of that is autocorrect. It's Facebook and I rarely proofread. I don't expect other people to be perfect either.

You never rely on spell check or autocorrect, and I would think anyone with a decent education would be taught the importance of proofreading.

It's not a matter of perfection, everyone forgives even teachers for occasional errors, I think OP's issue is with repeated infractions.

amother

Blush

Thu, Nov 17 2016, 5:26 am

I once nixed a school out of consideration because the materials were riddled with errors- and not just spelling (hey, typos happen and even proofreading can miss it), but grammar and syntax were messed up. No thank you. Regarding social media- it depends. On your personal page or posting in a group, who cares. Facebook is a place to chill, it's not a grammar test. But if you have a page promoting your business or organization, yes, you should be held to a higher standard. If you want to come off well professionally, put some thought and effort into those posts!

FranticFrummie

Thu, Nov 17 2016, 5:37 am

We're in Israel, and DD is constantly complaining about her "English" teacher. I use quotes, because this woman is not an Anglo, and can barely speak a complete sentence, never mind read or write one.

DD is a voracious reader, and an excellent story writer. She needs help with punctuation, sight words, and paragraph structure, and she's not getting it. She's in 7th grade, and they're giving her 3rd grade busywork. She's already been moved up to the 8th grade class, but they have the same teacher, and she's still not being challenged.

Meanwhile, she's only getting two hours a week of Hebrew! How is this kid supposed to learn anything? (To be fair, the math teacher speaks English well, and she's excelling in math for the first time in her life, and algebra is a breeze for her.)

sky

Thu, Nov 17 2016, 5:50 am

MagentaYenta wrote:

And people pay upwards of $10K a year for tuition. SMH

I would hope the schools that charge 10K+ are hiring differently then schools paying 5K. (Disclaimer: My kids go to schools on the lower end)