How would you feel if your child's teacher could not spell?

Question

A student teacher hands out a paper that says: "Freinds and Family Day! Com to recieve your free bunnys! This is your chance to lern were your child goes to scool?"
Would you question the teaching abilty of the student teacher? (ignoring the fact a simple spellcheck would have caught those mistakes, which were not intentional)
I am having a debate with someone over the fact spelling IS important in teaching and will affect how a teacher is viewed. (or that they may be overlooked for possible employment if they cannot spell reasonably well)
(This isn't meant to attack teachers, they are hard workers, I have the highest respect for them)

I am debating the student teacher who I know personally. She is very upset at me currently because I was blunt and told her she needed to improve her spelling or she would have difficulties finding teaching work. She didn't see anything wrong with what she wrote, and says she gets "A's" on her papers from her professors. (she blames the lack of teaching jobs for her unemployment) I also told her that parents would be very upset to see she could not spell, never mind teach spelling to students. I was basically called "anal" because I told her that spelling was important.
I agree with most here that spelling is falling by the way side, esp with chat lingo. I wonder if spelling will have the same thing happen that happened with shoe laces. I swear there is a generation who do not know how to tie shoe laces because of velcro shoes.

Answer 1

OMG

That is totally unacceptable. If she is a student teacher, she has to report to the "real" teacher (mentor, sponsor, what ever they call them in your school district). You need to speak to that teacher about this.

I had a teaching assistant in my classroom. She could not spell, nor did she possess and grammar skills what-so-ever. She could only do about half of her job because I could not allow her to write on the chalkboard, grade papers, or work one on one with a student.

I don't know how this student teacher is going to ever keep a full time teaching job. If you teach, you need to be able to spell, and you can't always use spell check as a safety net when teaching.

Answer 2

I am sorry that you are having a bad experience. Please let me tell you that not all people are inately good spellers. Some people, no matter how hard they try and how much they practice and memorize spelling rules still can not see their mistakes. I have always been a good speller and I never realized this fact until I came face to face with it on several occasions. There are people in education who are weak spellers and they do their best to compensate for it. Teachers are human, I say this more to the people who answered you more than to you. I have felt like those responding feel that teachers should be perfect. They should be held to a high standard of moral conduct that should go without saying but they make human mistakes in their jobs just like everyone else does.

Flying off the handle or backing a person into a corner will not help the situation. The "student" teacher is just that a student and yes you should call this paper to the attention of the cooperating teacher and let him/her handle the situation from there.

You never know that may not be the only problem that the person has in their student teaching experience. I have personally known people who did not pass their student teaching.

Answer 3

If the teacher's letter is really as bad as you posted, someone, somewhere needs to know this! As a veteran teacher of over 25 years, I would be horrified to see a student teacher send that out. If I had that student as a student teacher, I would show it to her college instructor. Regardless of whether spelling is becoming obsolete is irrelevant. Teachers should know how to spell. I would be concerned if this student teacher is mostly an observer or actually responsible for teaching the class and making assessments. If she could potentially be giving grades to your child, I would have a conference with the regular teacher first. If I was still concerned I would go to the principal. Actually, I think I would go to the principal anyway. They can more easily contact the university the teacher attends.

One person wondered whether a secretary wrote the letter. I can assure you that was not the case. In fact, secretaries don't do anything like that for teachers. I am surprised that the student teacher was permitted to send anything home without the prior approval of either the cooperating teacher or the principal.

Answer 4

If there is a lack of teaching jobs, your friend should do her best to show that she is more capable than the other applicants. This includes spelling. There might be a case where she and another applicant are exactly alike, except that her application has a spelling error or two. The person doing the hiring might take those errors to mean that your friend does not care enough about the job.

Answer 5

Teachers are supposed to spell well and if incapable of such, they should be upgrading themselves and must do some practice and researched of what they are lacking of; because by doing so, they can surely be a better teacher who'll be able to teach their students irregardless of what level they are in. I pity to see a lot of teachers now, incapable of such position. I feel sorry for that. I hope they will regard teaching as a true profession not only a skill to be backing on. A teacher is a wholesome person who identifies a perfection in their profession. How can they teach well when they lack this kind of skill.

Answer 6

How can one teach something that one does not know? Yes spelling is important especially for an educator. Did it come from the teacher or the student teacher? And was this person a teacher's aid or an actual college student studying to be a teacher?

I had a high school English teacher send home a nasty handwritten letter about my daughter's English research paper. After I circled in red ink all 15 spelling errors and 10 grammatical errors on her letter I returned it to her and threatened to turn her in to the school board for incompetence. I told her that once she actually learned English, she could teach it to my daughter. She had been threatening to fail my daughter, but the kid passed with a B and I never heard from that idiot again.

Sometimes parents have to be proactive about their children's educations. After all how can someone who can't spell encourage your child to exceed in spelling and grammar? That's just basic education there.

Answer 7

When I have asked questions on here, I have used spell check and to be honest it sometimes says no errors but if I re check it myself I can find errors, so I do not think it is that reliable, if the papers the teacher handed out were probably printed by the school secretary then it is possible that the mistake was made by her, I think however the teacher should have double checked the paper first!

Answer 8

Spelling is important to anyone who writes, not just teachers.
A person who composes a piece is not a writer unless it can be read by a reader. If spelling does not conform then the piece will be difficult or impossible to read/comprehend. The student teacher lacks the maturity to realize that she will be judged by her written work and if it does not conform to accepted spelling principles then she will be judged accordingly. But this also applies to anyone who would excuse spelling errors. Her lack of responsibility for being a good model for the students is to be considered also. I most certainly would not want a person teaching my child that it is acceptable to spell incorrectly.

Answer 9

It is a worry. It is bad enough that the youth of today have their spelling corrupted by text and chat room lingo. You would have thought that the classroom would be a sanctuary away from those things. I consider spelling important, I always spell words in my head as people are saying things. I go to my local bank regularly to get notes broken for parking money and there is one women there who can't add the money in her head or understand simple addition. It is infuriating and I fear for a world run by these people in the future.

Answer 10

first go to the mentor teacher. She should do something about it. let her know about your conversation with the intern teacher and how rude she was. Then if things don't change. Then talk to the principal with copies of the handouts. Each intern teacher has a site coordinator as well. If you need, contact that person! She should be very aware of what she hands out and the mentor teacher should be seeing it.