My 22 y.o. son recently needed step by step instructions on how to use the post office. Apparently, so far he's only ever used prepaid labels provided by retailers or EBay.

I am old now but graduated at the top of my HS class and went to an Ivy League college (back when a randomly ordinary smart kid could get in.) I distinctly remember writing a long paper on American foreign policy during my first semester there and getting the grade with notation from the professor pointing out that I had spelled "foreign" wrong every.single.time. (Spelled it "foriegn".) Granted, this was in the pre-PC days so there was no spell check, but still it's so horrifyingly stupid that I think about it all the time. Btw I've had a great career in foreign policy, so presumably dumb spelling errors are not an absolute deterrent to professional success.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He goes to public school. What do you expect?

Former teacher:

Kids from private schools who came to our public school always had gaps in their knowledge. 100% of the time. My niece was in private and was top of the 8th grade in math. The school said she had no peers at her math level because she was so far ahead but they created enrichment for her for the 10th grade curriculum. 3/4 of the way through 8th grade she had to switch to public school in FCPS. She was so far behind that she needed tutoring 3x a week to be able to understand what was being taught. I’m not dissing privates because there are some benefits to them, but don’t kid yourself that private school education is the utopia.

All private schools are not the same. My son will take BC calc as a sophomore and our public offers nothing beyond that (they said they’d pay for college classes). Our private (that we are switching to) offers multi variable, diff eq, linear algebra, a multiple advanced math seminars.

OP here.

You know, mulling over it, I think he probably writes automatically and correctly when he handwrites, because he's received 5s on all AP English and History exams he's taken so far, in which he's had to handwrite multiple paragraphs without spell check.

But faced with a purposefully confusing multiple choice question on the ACT about it, and forced to look it up, as a PP said, he realized he had never thought about the actual technicalities of it.

At least... I hope that's it.
OK, I will stop obsessing now!

Ha there was a great TV show once about these gaps in knowledge- we all have them.

Mine was how to pronounce “reluctantly” and “boisterous.”

If it helps, OP, I somehow never learned or forgot the difference between its and it’s until high school either despite being an avid reader and straight A student. I think I was in 10th grade when a frustrated English teacher wrote across the top of my essay that I had to proofread for the difference and I finally thought to look it up.

OP here.

DS said it's because "he has spell check" that nothing was flagged by teachers. The computer corrects him even before he hands stuff in? I don't know, I had to hand write all my essays. Or maybe he gets it right half the time, so no one really noticed?

UGH. I thought it was so obvious I didn't need to teach him that stuff.

Last year my then 16 yr old asked me if the Pentagon was named after a Confederate general.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He goes to public school. What do you expect?

Former teacher:

Kids from private schools who came to our public school always had gaps in their knowledge. 100% of the time. My niece was in private and was top of the 8th grade in math. The school said she had no peers at her math level because she was so far ahead but they created enrichment for her for the 10th grade curriculum. 3/4 of the way through 8th grade she had to switch to public school in FCPS. She was so far behind that she needed tutoring 3x a week to be able to understand what was being taught. I’m not dissing privates because there are some benefits to them, but don’t kid yourself that private school education is the utopia.

It isn't utopia but this student with those grades should at LEAST have the basics. Those grades indicate he has outstanding performance on tests, classwork, and homework. Something doesn't add up.

15-year-old kid wondered why everyone was upset over gas prices. $5 for a tankful of gas didn't seem all that much to her She had no idea it was PER GALLON until she learned to pump it herself.

Anonymous wrote:I need to feel better here.
17 year old DS, reviewing for his ACT, told me today he just learned this week the difference between "its" and "it ' s".
He's been a bookworm since he was 6! He has a 3.95 cumulative gpa, 4.7 weighted!
How did he get this far not knowing this, and what other obvious thing does he not know?

That's extremely unusual. How was he getting decent grades on written work?

When my son was about 14, he decided to make a birthday cake for a girl ‘friend’ on whom he had a massive crush.

He regularly cooked small things for himself at that point, and sometimes made dinner or breakfast. I thought it would be OK.

Nope. For some reason he decided it would be a good idea to microwave some sugar and whatever else he was using to make icing. I walked into the kitchen must as he was taking this mixture out of the microwave, in time to see the plastic bowl’s melted bottom fall out and cover his foot with melted sugar and plastic.

We ended up in the ER that night.

Anonymous wrote:He goes to public school. What do you expect?

Former teacher:

Kids from private schools who came to our public school always had gaps in their knowledge. 100% of the time. My niece was in private and was top of the 8th grade in math. The school said she had no peers at her math level because she was so far ahead but they created enrichment for her for the 10th grade curriculum. 3/4 of the way through 8th grade she had to switch to public school in FCPS. She was so far behind that she needed tutoring 3x a week to be able to understand what was being taught. I’m not dissing privates because there are some benefits to them, but don’t kid yourself that private school education is the utopia.

He goes to public school. What do you expect?

I need to feel better here.
17 year old DS, reviewing for his ACT, told me today he just learned this week the difference between "its" and "it ' s".
He's been a bookworm since he was 6! He has a 3.95 cumulative gpa, 4.7 weighted!
How did he get this far not knowing this, and what other obvious thing does he not know?