Grammar and spelling complaints

[Ed_Severson]

OK, folks. The members here have solved nearly every problem in the universe over the years, so I bring to you a recent problem of mine. I'm interested in your opinions and suggestions.

I have 2 kids: a son who is four and a half and a daughter a little beyond her first birthday. The kids go to a daycare during the week. In fairness, this facility is not actually a school. However, they have chosen to give themselves a name that starts with the word "learning", presumably to give you the impression that they do much more than just keep your children alive until you come to retrieve them.

I've recently noticed that many of the written communications we receive from them are littered with spelling and grammar mistakes. The most egregious one was a handwritten card I received before Father's Day, intended to inform me of a special coffee and donut party for dads, inscribed with the phrase "YOUR INVITED!". :shakehead: There are many other examples; my aim here isn't to keep a detailed record of each one.

Now, I'm an engineer, and engineers not write words so good. I see this sort of stuff all the time. Nobody is perfect, everyone makes mistakes, and in many contexts these mistakes are annoying to me but I can overlook them if they don't confuse the message. However, these mistakes are being made by the people I pay to educate my children. That bothers me quite a bit, and I sort of want to start publicly shaming them until they get the point. My wife, on the other hand, thinks this is all no big deal -- who cares if the people influencing your child's development can read or write?

So, what say you? Am I an elitist ******* for not being thrilled about spending hundreds per week to have my kids surrounded by so many poor examples, or do I have a legitimate gripe here? Will this turn them into axe murderers or heroin fiends? Worst of all, is it possible my wife is right?

[G.]

engineers not write words so good.

I are a exception to this.


OT, To what end? Will you educate the staff, or are they finished learning?
Will they improve themselves? Or will you be seen as an ass?

If they are teaching your kids readin' an' writin', then you are in a different realm of complaintitude, but realize, that even piss-poor teachers follow what they are given for class lessons. That means, the words are usually spelled right.

I suggest leaving it be, using your best grammar in your own communications with them, and hope that your example motivates the staff to learn more betterer.

(Note: setting a good example will have just as good a chance of helping the staff as shaming them - None whatsoever.)

When their poor writing can be interpreted with different meanings, a kind letter asking for clarification is warranted. Let your wife do it. :gomer:



Finally, heroin fiends. Sorry.

[SteveH]

Does the day care actually employ teachers?

[gerhard911]

LMFAO...

You, your, you're. To, too, two. They, their, they're...

You hang on the internet enough to realize that aboot (sic) 20% of folks actually know the difference.

That stated, I wood (sic) eggspect (sic) more from a "learning center" that I was paying good money too (sic).

:shakehead:

[cameraman]

It's a daycare and four-year-olds don't work on grammar or spelling. While in a perfect world it would be nice if the teacher could write a sentence on an eight grade level this is anything but a perfect world.

More to the point, are your kids doing games based on the alphabet and counting? Are they doing art projects and playing games? Are they learning how to line up and get down the hall in a controlled fashion? Are they building a larger vocabulary from being read to by the teacher? Are they learning how to control themselves and sit still during story time? That's what matters for four-year-olds.

Truth be told my son's best preschool teacher, who hit every point on the list above and much more, couldn't put a literate paragraph together on her own. Her notes home were cringe inducing but she could read a riveting story to the kids and they loved her.

I'd be looking at what was going on during the day in the classroom and remember that the finer points of you're & your are far outside the realm of preschool education.

[WickerBill]

I don't necessarily agree. Although I'm not sure sending their notes back with full red pen markup will solve anything, I'd be concerned about that lack of English skill translating to the main thing the facility IS imparting on the children: speech.

Let us know when your kids start saying "I seen a truck..."

-- ML

[chop456]

^ Exactly.

If they can't even spell "scene" correctly, there's an issue.

[cameraman]

In this case she could talk just fine, her verb tenses were correct, vocabulary was strong, she just couldn't spell to save her life and a note started with a capital letter and ended with a period. If you were to edit her notes you wouldn't actually change the words or word order. You would go through and fix the spelling and add commas, periods, question marks and capital letters as needed. It was very well spoken illiteracy.

[Gnam]

Nobody likes preschool grammar Nazis.

[datachicane]

As much as I share your angst, these are daycare workers, not teachers. Given that daycare worker pay is generally closer to what one would expect in the fast food industry than, say, a fat-cat teacher :saywhat:, I'm not certain that your expectations are realistic.

Childcare is a knotty problem without an obvious solution, no doubt. After much hand-wringing on the subject, I rearranged my work schedule and my wife took a job specifically for the flexible hours so that we could avoid daycare, but that's obviously not practical for everyone, and was made somewhat easier by the fact that we were older parents (35 when our daughter was born). Those developmental psych courses I took in college ended up costing us a fortune.

[Dvdb]

And then there (their?) is this...............

http://www.ibtimes.com/ap-crash-lands-headline-associated-press-publishes-muddled-tweet-causes-panic-1636682

Perspective?

[WickerBill]

And then there (their?) is this...............

http://www.ibtimes.com/ap-crash-lands-headline-associated-press-publishes-muddled-tweet-causes-panic-1636682


That is completely ridiculous for the Associated Press. You don't even need an editor for that; you just need to re-read what you wrote once before clicking the button.

[Andrew Longman]

If you can honestly say it, I suggest that you tell the owner/ manager/person in charge that you greatly like the care and experience your kids are getting and you like their caregivers a great deal. The kids especially like coming there.

Then tell them that you are concerned about the impression they may be giving the parents and the public in general over some of the written communication that is sent out. Show them some example if you have them. Explain you understood their intent but that the poor grammar may have been a distraction to other parents and cause them to think less of the school.

Finally, ask if and how they want you to point out any new errors you see. If you have a suggestion for how to improve spelling and grammar, offer it.

Depending on how they react you can decide if this school is worth your time and money, but at least you did something to constructively point the issue and make improvement possible.

[Insomniac]

Did you answer your own question?


In fairness, this facility is not actually a school.

If you're not getting what you expect, I think a complaint is merited.

Personally, I agree with most here, if they aren't teaching reading (that they wrote) or writing, you're the only one who has to put up with it.

[gjc2]

Weird Al feels you pain . . . .


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc