We are doomed if educators can't write

[joebryant]

A less than amazing grasp of the intricacies of the English language does not neccessarily indicate that the writer is foolish or unable to comprehend.

That's absolutely right, and most people have no need for an "amazing grasp of the inticacies of the English language." Some people excel in math, cooking, carpentry, plumbing, sewing, etc., and have no interest in or real need for "standard" English. I enjoy reading ALL posts. We have to bear in mind too that without the "errors" people make in English, we'd never get changes in our language and the language would DIE. The "STANDARD" is always changing, be glad. I still cannot believe that drug and snuck are now both irregular verbs and are standard English and have been for several years.​

 

[WriterofWords]

Well I guess it would depend on the sentence it was used in:

This is Friday's schedule.
Tickets are sold on Fridays.

ETA: Maybe he was one of the students that never paid attention in class and now blames his teachers?

 

[Tuffoldhen]

Quote:

 

[The Chicken Lady]

Even the most prolific and experienced writers have editing teams. It's best to have someone proofread school-to-home communications before they are sent out.

Contact your school administration office, and offer to volunteer if they need assistance.

 

[blossom hen]

Maybe the principal or her secretary ran spell check on the correspondence. A boss once gave me a letter he had written and asked me to take care of printing copies and mailing. It had grammatical errors, which I carefully pointed out to him. He said, "But I ran spell check!" He really didn't know the difference in the usage of the words he had used incorrectly. After that, he had me proofread all his correspondence. Sometimes, I just went to his computer, pulled up the document and reworded the whole thing.
A few months after we began this routine, he came in laughing and told me he had received a compliment on his improved communication skills.

 

[hikerchick]

Quote:
It was my friend's son's school; and anyway I work a full-time job and two part-time jobs. I don't have time to educate people who are supposed to be educated.

 

[hikerchick]

Quote:
My daughter spends her life texting but she spells out words completely and uses punctuation. She can't bear those "how r u" type of messages.

 

[michickenwrangler]

I took a grad school course for my Master's in Secondary Education and the topic of "eliminating the apostraphe" was brought up. Most of us in the class were English or foreign language teachers and of course became apalled but one of the few math teachers in there brought up "No one uses them correctly anyway." When I told this to an English teacher colleague, she too looked stricken.

That same math teacher on another day brought up that our language paradigm is shifting and it should only matter if we're literate within the paradigm. Essentially, we're texting and emailing and so long as we're literate within that realm, we'll all be fine.

Again, we who deal with grammar and the intricacies of language were not happy to hear that.

My students occasionally griped when I told them that Spanish is an easier language than English: vowels only have one sound and words are spelled the way they sound. It's a heck of a lot more phonetic than THIS crazy language that is rapidly becoming a global means of communication

 

[bUg_Farm]

Quote:
Agreed. Depends on usage. It is not automatically wrong.

 

[hikerchick]

Quote:
Agreed. Depends on usage. It is not automatically wrong.

I do understand the difference but apparently the principal did not. He said something about something that would be happening "on Friday's". Not "on Friday's schedule", or "on Friday's menu". It was the context of the latter example, not the former. I don't expect all educators to be language mavens, and I don't expect never to see typos; but I don't think it is too much to expect someone who must have at least a Master's degree to understand the difference between "Fridays" and "Friday's".