I saw the sign for weeks as I went in and out the door of my children’s summer camp. Did I dare take a picture? Furthermore, should I be a true Lynne Trussian Correctionist and—gulp—tell the offending teacher she made a grievous, though common, error in punctuation?
What is a Correctionist to do?
If you want to learn more about the Correctionist Project, read my introduction and “Exhibit A” over at Never True Tales.
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Oh that’s terrible! (Note I used the apostrophe correctly.) So…did you tell her?
Oh, the humanity. Maybe Miss __ and Miss ___ could use a few more days per week themselves? Oy.
Wow. Just wow. I have no idea here. None!
That gets me every time when I see teachers making simple mistakes like that themselves. I can’t believe they’re teaching our kids!
I don’t know what I’d do if I saw this. Keep us posted…
I would have faced the same dilemma. I am way too conflict-averse to have actually said anything, but I would have comforted myself with the fact that our preschoolers (I’m making assumptions here) don’t know how to read and so will not be negatively influenced. :)
Shudder. I hope you pointed it out!
I really don’t know what to do. There are some college students/teachers there for the summer, so I’m not sure who actually wrote the sign. I thought of telling the director, but worry it will earn me an uncomfortable reputation. These people take care of my kids, after all, and they do it well. And yes, Kristen, I figure the kids are too young to know punctuation rules and thus will not be deeply harmed. But seriously–would you all do or say something?
When I encountered a similar sign at our elementary school (where I also work!) I approached it this way: I very neutrally told the school secretary (who I suspected had created the sign) that ‘whichever student she’d tasked with making the sign had mixed up their apostrophe’, then gave her a ‘what can we do/kids these days’ shrug. This way, she had the out of blaming it on a kid, but instead, she cheerfully confessed. lol
I know you can’t blame it on the preschoolers, but maybe bring it up acting as though you assume a student helper or some such person did it?
Just sneak in there and correct it with when no one is looking.
The camp is in one big room, and this is the door out. There is no way to do it without everyone watching.
What if it’s your friend and they did it 3 times in different blog posts? I want to tell her, but she is very pregnant and sensitive anyway. I say bring a pen and secretly cross out the apostrophes. ;)
I just have to share this article I read a few weeks ago, maybe it will help. :-)
http://www.writingforward.com/grammar/good-grammar/good-grammar-and-bad-manners
Great article!
I LOVE the article that Christine shared!
Furthermore, I’d hesitate to get on the bad side of anybody who is in the position of subtly making my child’s life hell.
I’ve been in those wanna-be-correctionist shoes, too. And, alas, I have no advice. How to instruct a teacher (the expert?) without insulting?
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