Being a PCA for my mother in-law I get to spend quite a bit of time with my 17 year old brother in-law. This means I help him with every thing from homework to girl problems. Today's homework was an English paper on phobias. This is also the point where my anger and frustrations begin to boil, but not because of him but because of our schools.
He is 17 years old and doesn't even know proper English! I don't want to chalk it up to laziness cause these are mistakes that even a lazy kid doesn't make. He would start almost every sentence with the words: So, And, & because. I was at a loss for words I was so shocked. There was also the use of the word witch for the word which. I don't want to sound like a spelling and grammar Nazi but I know 12 year olds that don't write like that. How do you not know Where from were and we're? My teachers in high school and middle school were constantly reminding us to remember our commonly misspelled words. Also his use of run on sentences really drove me nuts. Instead of starting a new sentence he would just use the word "and". I spent 4 hours explaining to him how to write a proper paper today. Every thing from intros to conclusions.
What I am trying to understand is how this got under the radar of his English teachers all these years. How does a child not know how to write a proper paper or use proper grammar? I know he is special needs ( ADHD, anxiety and fetal alcohol syndrome) but these are not excuses to not teach him. I have ADHD and can write a decent paper on any subject I have enough knowledge on. I have a learning disability as well. I didn't have help in school for every test I took and a para following me to every class like he does and I still managed to get A's and B's in school.
Are teachers getting lazy? Do teachers just not care any more? What is to become of our education system? These are questions that are racing through my mind tonight. My teachers were vigilant on their grammar crusades. Nothing missed my teacher's criticism. Their red pens bloodied my papers until I learned to use conjunctions and adjectives in a proper manner. I felt terrible when I bloodied his paper in the same manner earlier today and wondered if my teachers felt the same or if they just pitied me. Did it make them proud to see me improve over the year? Are students like me what makes them want to keep teaching? I know every time a teacher used my work to make a good example of what to do, it made my heart swell with such pride. I knew my pride would make my head big but I just didn't care at that point. English was my best subject and I still cling to it to find happy places for my head to rest.
I want to leave you with this question tonight: What would you do if you discovered your child was still writing run on sentences as a junior in high school? Tell me in the comments or ask me questions as well. Blessed be my friends.
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