Preach

OP, I agree -- it's depressing and maddening, given that these people are in charge of our kids' education. The letter home from teachers, the principal, or MCPS that does NOT contain comma splices is the exception, not the rule.

It's not just MCPS, either -- my son got a general recruiting email from UMD that had multiple grammatical mistakes.

Not only is there very little attention to the mechanics of writing in school -- spelling and grammar -- but I don't know that I can trust the teachers actually to know the rules of grammar.

I'm in a field where spelling and grammatical mistakes, as well as poor writing in general, absolutely do count against your credibility as an advocate; I don't believe that we should accept as a society that our schools have more important subjects to focus on than writing.

Anonymous wrote:

Central office has ignored us so far when multiple people have pointed out the errors. There are SO many errors in the crappy Curriculum 2.0 resources that I can't even bear to use them and create my own instead. Maybe if parents contact central office about the errors they see in central office created resources they'd actually pay attention. They *do* need something to do to justify their jobs in central office, after all.

This X10000. There is zero quality control in the central office. Eric Lang ran a horrible operation but was confident that he would never get fired for it. Many teachers do try to correct the materials by crossing things out/making corrections before copying it. Many teachers also hold back materials that are so bad they are beyond correction.

The math worksheets are the worst!

Larla has 10 apples. Jake has five oranges. Jim is making a pie in Idaho fifty miles away. Karen is driving a bus south at 50 miles an hour. How many blueberries does Frank have in his basket? Explain you're thinking and how you used the number line to solve this problem.

Someone in the central office would probably respond that the teacher hadn't educated herself enough in 2.0 to think deeper and that obviously the student was expected to infer that Karen had the blueberries and lived in Canada which is north of Idaho hence why she driving south to get to Jim the pie maker. The child is expected to use their estimation skills to infer how many blueberries would be in two 8 inch pies. The child is expected to infer that Jim wants to make two pies because Larla and Jake are bringing apples and oranges.

Hilarious! Also depressing. As the parent of a 2.0 Guinea pig, I saw a lot of this. One of my favorites was a map that was obviously mislabeled...and it was a prep material for a test.

Central office has ignored us so far when multiple people have pointed out the errors. There are SO many errors in the crappy Curriculum 2.0 resources that I can't even bear to use them and create my own instead. Maybe if parents contact central office about the errors they see in central office created resources they'd actually pay attention. They *do* need something to do to justify their jobs in central office, after all.

This X10000. There is zero quality control in the central office. Eric Lang ran a horrible operation but was confident that he would never get fired for it. Many teachers do try to correct the materials by crossing things out/making corrections before copying it. Many teachers also hold back materials that are so bad they are beyond correction.

The math worksheets are the worst!

Larla has 10 apples. Jake has five oranges. Jim is making a pie in Idaho fifty miles away. Karen is driving a bus south at 50 miles an hour. How many blueberries does Frank have in his basket? Explain you're thinking and how you used the number line to solve this problem.

Someone in the central office would probably respond that the teacher hadn't educated herself enough in 2.0 to think deeper and that obviously the student was expected to infer that Karen had the blueberries and lived in Canada which is north of Idaho hence why she driving south to get to Jim the pie maker. The child is expected to use their estimation skills to infer how many blueberries would be in two 8 inch pies. The child is expected to infer that Jim wants to make two pies because Larla and Jake are bringing apples and oranges.

Anonymous wrote:Libary Event
Its going to be a great school year!
Larla should of brought her project to school on Tuesday
Please bare with the construction on 7th and Stuart
Wednesday’s in June: free summer science class

^made-up-by-me grammar issues, but akin to the ones I have seen in newsletters and emails

SHOULD OF! My all time favorite.

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. I've been forced to give MCPS-created presentations in which the word "school" is misspelt...

I'm an ESOL teacher and the state of Maryland created and mandated, but MCPS amended, parent notification letter we have to send home to all parents of ESOL students has a grammatical error AND a spelling error. Central office has ignored us so far when multiple people have pointed out the errors. There are SO many errors in the crappy Curriculum 2.0 resources that I can't even bear to use them and create my own instead. Maybe if parents contact central office about the errors they see in central office created resources they'd actually pay attention. They *do* need something to do to justify their jobs in central office, after all.

Libary Event
Its going to be a great school year!
Larla should of brought her project to school on Tuesday
Please bare with the construction on 7th and Stuart
Wednesday’s in June: free summer science class

^made-up-by-me grammar issues, but akin to the ones I have seen in newsletters and emails

Teacher here. I've been forced to give MCPS-created presentations in which the word "school" is misspelt...

Anonymous wrote:NP here.

If schools are teaching students when to use its vs. it's, your vs. you're, they're vs. there vs. their, and were vs. we're vs. where, I believe those in teaching & admin roles within MCPS should know which word is the appropriate one.

I agree! By the way, at our former Catholic private, the letters from the headmaster were beautifully written.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We all want a swift, if not immediate reply from someone who is also trying to see to the needs of a lot of children. I’m not worried about cosmetic issues as long as the information is accurate, useful, and clear. If the grammatical issues interfere with understanding the info, it is worth speaking up. Otherwise, I’d find something else to nit pick.

You sound like a sloppy thinker and person overall.

Evidence?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe you should volunteer to be the copy editor of all school communications.

This.

Not the OP

Really? I’d volunteer to do this for the PTA, but why would I volunteer to do this for the Principal’s newsletters?

Part of his job is to communicate with parents.

I wouldn't trust you either because principal isn't capitalized.

Here's the real deal folks. Grammar and spelling aren't addressed, as there are too many other obstacles to battle in the classroom.

Now, we did make the move to a smaller area where many kids can walk to school, and my older daughter instantly noticed the difference in rigor and "precision." I use precision because formatting is also taken seriously, as she's had points taken off for not heading her paper properly.
So this lack of precision hasn't hit all areas just yet. And I emphasize YET, as eventually the dumbing down of America will be apparent all over.

As more and more people graduate with fewer and fewer skills, we cannot attract the best and the brightest in education. I've had younger colleagues ask me about clauses and phrases, acknowledging that they were never taught the basics. So they had to learn before they could teach their students. Of course that quick learning does increase cognitive empathy, and many grammatical novices are probably more successful in teaching grammar than we "wise" ones are.

Still . . . this need to teach oneself the basics is a timer sucker.

These novices are also the ones climbing the ranks - and rather quickly I'll add. These are the more resilient ones who remain in the system, however, as many others leave education entirely. I'd say those leaving are probably the WISE ones.

Anonymous wrote:We all want a swift, if not immediate reply from someone who is also trying to see to the needs of a lot of children. I’m not worried about cosmetic issues as long as the information is accurate, useful, and clear. If the grammatical issues interfere with understanding the info, it is worth speaking up. Otherwise, I’d find something else to nit pick.

You sound like a sloppy thinker and person overall.

NP here.

If schools are teaching students when to use its vs. it's, your vs. you're, they're vs. there vs. their, and were vs. we're vs. where, I believe those in teaching & admin roles within MCPS should know which word is the appropriate one.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe you should volunteer to be the copy editor of all school communications.

This.

Not the OP

Really? I’d volunteer to do this for the PTA, but why would I volunteer to do this for the Principal’s newsletters?

Part of his job is to communicate with parents.

Because the usage and misspellings bother you.

If you understand what he's saying, he's communicating with parents. You just don't like how he communicates with parents. So, volunteer to help.

It's not only public school. It's private too. I have seen errors in BTS Powerpoint too. Our teacher last year was dumb as a rock. This year's welcome back letter from the head of the lower school was so poorly written--like it had never been proofread at all and that person has an EdD. It's scary.