"Choose" and "chose"

And I HATE when people confuse "our" and "are"

"Are house is really big"

Seriously?!

A big mistake I see a lot is we're vs. were, or were vs. where. When did they become the same?

I don't know if it's grammar so much as vocabulary choice and general retardation by copying what others say, but some of my students say "mines" instead of "mine". For example, Me- "Whose paper is this? There's no name on it." Student- "That's mines."

I always correct them and I'm the French teacher for heaven's sake. Depending on my mood I might add something snarky like, "It's mine, not mines. Mines are for extracting diamonds and coal."

Someone already mentioned another of mine, a lot. My MIL does "alot" in emails and it drives me up the wall. She even tried to tell me that it was acceptable. Ummm, no.

Also, just have to ask, but does anyone else(teachers or others) out there notice a severe lack of code-switching with the youth today? (man this makes me feel old) There was a way I spoke in front of my elders and a way I spoke in front of my friends. Some of my students don't seem to understand you don't just swear up a storm in front of your teacher, use the n word (which I don't allow at all) or other insults in front of your teachers. A good portion of them basically just act the way they act all the time in front of adults. Kind of scary.

"Strategery."

I strongly recommend Garner's Modern American Usage.

http://www.amazon.com/Garners-Modern.../dp/0195161912

I was about to come in here and mention code-switching until I saw you had mentioned it. I'd be careful in "correcting" students without qualifying the correction by saying that it's appropriate to speak the language of business (or whatever you choose to call it) IN SCHOOL. Students today are required to speak the white man's English. When they're told that their language is "wrong" it alienates them even more from those who were brought up speaking Standard English.

Kids today are a hot mess. But, we're seeing more and more that kids are being raised by parents who are kids themselves. Our society is set-up for people who work best under rules, who have a network of people pushing/pulling them up and up, and who value obtaining the object over fostering personal relationships. Too many children are wedged into a world not made for them which is why it is critical for students to see people who are like them (ethnic and/or socio-economic similarity) doing positive things with confidence. And, children need for people to understand that it's ok for them to use their own CORRECT dialect, but that they also have to be trained in how to use Standard English in order to survive in the world of academia. It's like learning an entirely new language for a lot of kids.

On the n-word. If its in use at home, it's not our place to "correct" it. It IS our place to restrict its use (and the use of other words that may offend) in the space called school. School isn't just a place to learn facts; it's a place to be trained on how to act within a society that's foreign to you.

What if it's white kids doing it?? Seriously, when I go visit my dad in Hickland, I hear kids who have probably never had interaction with a black person ever talking in what would be considered black dialect. Whether it's to piss off their parents, to try to sound cool, or to mock black people, at any rate it's ridiculous.

Lockbox

One of the grad students created a password for our Strategic Management course website.

Password? Stratergy.

iDied.

Which is why I said ethnicity and/or socio-economic background. Often kids with less money gravitate toward other kids with less money and if you consider that most of the wealth in this country is in the hands of whites, you can discern who is more likely to be at a lower socio-economic status. People poke fun at whites in trailer parks calling them "white trash." But, doing so only reinforces the break between them and "higher" society.

The white kids with money who do the things you mentioned are (as you said) trying to piss off their parents, sound cool and - probably less often - mocking black people. What's the statistic? 90% of the wealth is in the hands of 10% of the people? Human beings want to belong...that's who we are. So if you're in that 10% or if you have money, you either assimilate to your parents' culture or you try to fit in with the other 90% of the population by doing things that you *think* make you look like you're "down" and you're still "cool" even though you have money.

I completely disagree! No matter what race you are, profane and offensive language is inappropriate in school. It doesn't matter what parents teach the children at home...at school, the teacher is the boss and can CORRECT any behavior that is inappropriate.

Imply and infer.

I infer from your implication that .....

Also, I have a friend who constantly misuses the word discerning. She uses it in place of distressing, as in, "It is so discerning that my boss is a crab."

I don't correct her because I think it would be rude to do so, but I wonder if others think she is a dumb bunny when she says it.

It's inappropriate to you, personally, and it is most certainly inappropriate in school, but it may not be inappropriate to the child's parents. As I mentioned, as a teacher, you have the obligation to ban potentially offensive language in your classroom and explain to children why such language is inappropropriate in that context. I would support you wholeheartedly there.

On the other hand, if you brought it to the parents attention and they were as horrified as you were, at that point, reinforcing what they're already teaching at home is terrific.

We all do a disservice to children when we chastise them outside of the parents' wishes. It's counterproductive to teach (in school or otherwise) values if they aren't being reinforced at home.

Unfortunately, in a lot of cases, parents are not specifically teaching any values. I doubt any teacher is telling children that their parents are wrong in a situation. They would likely tell them not to use inappropriate language in public places according to societal norms. What their parents allow at home is immaterial. This is across all racial groups. If a white parent allows the n-word at home, I'd the same reaction (or worse) to the child using that word in public. Teachers have more contact with school children in a day than most parents and have been routinely expected to impart societal values to their students.

Most of my grammar pet peeves have been listed. There's one that I see all over GC and elsewhere and it drives me absolutely batty. noone

"We threw a party and noone showed up."

It's not a word! It's "no one." I see it and always think, "Noony?" Really, Noony showed up? How's Noony doing these days?

I know what you're saying, but the kids saying "mines" are white and they think it's proper to say it. I think we are getting far too worried about what is PC and whose feelings we're going to hurt by not correcting people when they make mistakes.

And on the n-word...unacceptable. It doesn't matter if their parents allow them to use it at home, it's unacceptable in professional and school settings. If I dropped the n-word, f-bomb, etc... in a professional or scholarly environment, you can bet that I would get looks. My husband wanders about the house in his boxers, should he do it outside the house because it's ok at home? No, I would hope if he did someone would tell him that it's a bad idea and to go put on some clothing.

/hijack

Ever eaten at a restaurant with any of these kids? I have and it's appalling. I have had to have etiquette lessons with the vast majority of my students that I take to France or to our French club banquet at a very nice restaurant. Most of them have no clue what proper table manners are or how to conduct themselves in an acceptable manner. If I didn't do this, I'm sure I'd have GC members starting posts about the horrible school group that ate at the restaurant last night, or the rude kids on the airplane etc...

/end hijack.