Originally posted by prepstudinsc+Sep 18 2005, 07:22 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(prepstudinsc @ Sep 18 2005, 07:22 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteBegin-DoubleMeatWhopper@Sep 18 2005, 04:42 PM
[post=344414]Quoted post[/post]
The real question is how are these students passing through elementary school and junior high or middle school not learning the basics of spelling? Are their teachers that incompetent or do the just not care?
[post=344446]Quoted post[/post]
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In your last sentence, you mispelled the word they. You wrote "the" instead. Your mistake is the one that I make so often. The very same mistake and the very same word. There is a difference in typos and mispelled words. Also there are words that I have to stop and write out in long hand to spell. That is the way I learned how to spell.
Also, as mentioned earlier, there are some people who just can't spell as there are people who will never learn to read. No curriculum is going to fix that. But a majority of the problem is with the PARENTS. Students value what their parents value. Many students have parents who hated school and couldn't care less about spelling and they pass that attitude on to their children. It is difficult for the school to overcome home environments of some of our students.
Some will wonder how those students made it through elementary school. I have tried to retain students before and was vetoed by the administration. And I learned for a good reason. I taught sixth grade. The students I wanted to retain couldn't read on a third grade level. It doesn't matter at that point what grade they are in: sixth or seventh. But it does matter what influence a 14 year old student failing several grades that hates school, learning and teachers, can have on a sixth grader. So it wouldn't have helped that child, but it would have created problems for the next batch of sixth graders.
The time to retain is at the grade level where the problem first starts whatever age that may be. Waiting several years to retain makes retaining no longer a viable option in getting a student on grade level. Example: If a student does not know the basics of addition and subtraction, the time to retain is at the grade level where that is taught, not later. The other option is to provide remedial help after school, Saturdays and during summer school.
The best option is not being used. Parents, not schools or the government need to be held accountable for students who have the ability to learn, but fluff it off in a don't care fashion. If a parent were required to come to the school to help their wayward child who doesn't behave or is not doing his or her work, we would see overnight changes. But we are not going to do that.
If we want the best and brightest to be teachers, then we are going to have to pay what it takes to get the best and brightest to teach. I have seen incompetent teachers hired and off the record I was told that, "This isn't the person we wanted to hire, BUT this was the only applicant as every other school in the area was paying more." So we ended up with the teachers that no one else wanted. The people passed a millage rate increase and we went to the top in pay and in a few years, we had the best teachers as well.
I am a retired teacher and I take issue with you to first assume that it is the teachers fault. Teachers do not make the rules, they do not have any say so anymore about education. Those decisions are made by someone else, many times by people who have never taught.
Students should be first in who is being held accountable, folowed by parents, administration, teachers and then the taxpayers who may not be funding their schools properly.
We all should all take the time to click "Preview Post" and read our post one more time. We all think we made no typos or mispelled words, but sadly many of us have. I typed "of the record" instead of "off the record." That is purely a typo eror. I do know how to spell "off."
So Monty I did find much humor in finding a typo in a post about having posts in good order before you click on "Add Reply."