Is it me???

Just read all three pages of this thread with interest as I am a bit of a pedant myself, though aware I am not perfect. I'm afraid I can't get Minxie's contribution out of my mind. Can someone tell me what is wrong with the cafe name "Shelly's Cafe"?

No it's not you. Incompetence everywhere you look. People inordinately pleased with themselves. Mediocrity rules. Now....where did it come from?
Lots of Mrs No Efforts, seemingly as a matter of honour - can't be seen to be trying too hard (why not?). And other cultural influences.

No I quite agree! In the past the Head would read all the reports and counter-sign them - any that contained spelling or other mistakes/unacceptable errors would be returned to the teacher to correct.
I would raise it with the Head (I used to be a Parent Governor at my children's Primary school a long time ago!)

Thank you Nelliemaggs For a while when the children were young I was a T A. I have 2 degrees .
I have though come across TAs who were very badly educated. Both in their work in the classroom and in the dreadful way they spoke and interacted with the children. Why they were employed I have no idea.

The worst spelling I came across from a teacher was a written remark made about a child whose spelling was 'abismal'.

Tokyojo don't assume that 'adult helpers' in classrooms are less educated/poorer spellers than the teachers. In my experience it was quite the reverse. It is very often well educated parents who go for the poorly paid job because it enables them to be there for their children while they are still in primary school, particularly of course in the school holidays. Classroom assistants would swap tales of teacher mistakes in the staff room, most of the staff rooms being segregated with teachers at one end and other staff up the other. As a visiting assistant, at a different school every day of the week, I soon learned which end of the staff room I belonged in.

Rosina - that is appalling! There's no excuse for giving the unfortunate pupils incorrect spellings to learn. That teacher really shouldn't be allowed near children, what a dreadful attitude.

No , you are not unreasonable.i remember being horrified at lunch time when another colleague asked a child, "what was you doing in the building ". Terrible!!

No not unreasonable and I worked in a school for many years and saw this all the time. I think they use a computer a lot and it's either auto corrected on there or they're not bothered. Also, I hate to say this but I think too many people can get onto degree courses -and their standard of literacy and numeracy doesn't have to be that great. Not impressed.

There's a poster in the Reception area of my grandchildrens' school, detailing 'Star of the week' pupils. The word 'responsable' really irks me, and I have to stop myself from correcting it with my red pen.
I feel that mentioning it to the Secretary at the desk would cause embarrassment/irritation so I have to live with it!

It may not have been written by the teacher. It could easily have been written by another adult helper. I agree that spelling is very important and mistakes like those you have mentioned were a poor oversight by somebody. Please don't be so quick to blame the teacher!!!

My granddaughter received a letter last week from Brighton University notifying her of her degree result, and Bachelor was spelt "Batchelor" like the soup!!

Good spelling and grammar are very important. And starting early with it is important. Youngsters may not use it in their future lives but they may and it looks so bad if you get it so wrong.

I know some people just can't spell or have things like dyslexia but thats something that can be worked around and allowed for. Reallly there is no excuse these days with computers having spell checker and grammar checker.

^My DGS goes to a private school and the teachers there make terrible spelling/punctuation/grammar errors.
So you can't even get good teachers when you're paying for it!^

Well, that is poor Cosafina and I would be very cross if my child's report contained spelling/punctuation/grammar mistakes if I were paying £4k a term school fees. Not all teachers, both in the private and state sector are good spellers, some may even be dyslexic, but it is the duty of the Head to check and re check every report. I will stay up half the night during the past few weeks of term to ensure that all the reports which leave my school are without faults. My eyes are smarting and my head aching after spending hour after hour correcting mistakes and re writing incoherent sentences, but when parents are paying thousands of pounds a year for their child's education there is no excuse for errors. We even employ a person who is a top linguist to come and help us with the process.

I'd have thought the headteacher, head of year or head of depatment would have enough to do without having to check the spelling of reports! Ana, the buck stops with the Head, he or she must find the time, even out of hours to check and re check the spelling of reports. The person at the top has to set the example, that's what he or she is paid to do and everyone should be proud of the finished result.
We send the poor reports back to the teachers to correct, (in the hope that they will learn from their mistakes for the next time!), and once corrected, we go through them again with a fine tooth comb and re correct if necessary.

When my twin sons were very young and at primary school
I looked through their exercise books and there were quite a few spelling mistakes where the teacher had commented,

dj

Teachers are not "supposed to know"; teachers are supposed to encourage their pupils to learn and have enquiring minds, how to find out about stuff they don't know, and how to problem solve.

I hated writing end of year reports. 32 children. Al least ten subjects to write about. I would proof read them and then the headteacher would read the report for every child in the school before they were sent home. Sometimes mistakes would slip through the net. Teachers are only human.

Sorry! Didn't mean to suggest that someone complaining about spelling can't spell.
Back in my box.

Well hush my mouth!!!

Or she can't spell!

I assume the posters name is a joke in relation to the op.

A friend's son brought home a list of ten spellings, eight of which were wrongly spelt. She ticked him off and corrected them, and the next day her son came home and said that the words were written on the board as he had copied them originally. Friend went in after school to discreetly tell the teacher and was met with a great deal of hostility. Absolutely amazed at this she asked what the point was in giving children incorrectly spelled words to learn, and the response was 'We are not all perfectionists in this world, Mrs. B'. That must have been about twenty five years ago at least, so what hope is there now?

Soself, how do you pronounce your name?

Spelling is obviously not the most important thing learnt at school, but it does have a useful function in that correct spelling along with correct punctuation does help to avoid misunderstandings.
However, spelling like grammar does change from generation to generation.
I was for instance taught that the present participle when used as a noun should always be preceded by a possessive pronoun, not by a pronoun i.e. the sentence " My parents object to me staying out late in the evening" is incorrect, it should be "to my staying out"
I doubt that any youngster would dream of saying or writing "to our swearing" they would quite naturally say and write "to us swearing".

Likewise I expect the apostrophe will disappear from written English in a generation or two, as we seem to be the last people to know the rules governing its use.

The spelling checker and grammar checker are useful, but not infallible - however much I insist that I want British English, mine reverts to American English, and I constantly have to insert "u" in colour, favour, etc. or a second "l" into travelling! Even if you can get it to respect the form of English you use, it does not necessarily know every word that you know.

This said, I agree, school teachers should be able to spell, use punctuation correctly and know the multiplication tables, plus a vast lot of other things like when to use which past tense in French ( I once invigilated a written A level exam where there was a sentence that not even native French speakers were confident about translating) or explain the difference between strong and weak German verbs, but we are none of us perfect, after all.

Secretaries are just as guilty as teachers. I once received a letter addressed to Mr. followed by my Christian name Elisabeth and my surname. As it was for a gynaelogical appointment, I was considerably miffed!