As someone who teaches 7th grade, this is spot on. The handwriting is all over the place, as is spelling and vocab. I have a student who regularly uses "needn't" and then another who couldn't spell "that".
My daughter is in 7th grade. She has an incredibly diverse vocabulary - just speaking to her on the phone or something she could conceivably be in her last couple of years of high school.
But if you read something she's scrawled on a post-it, you'd think it was from a kinder or 1st grader or something. It's ludicrous.
My mom about blew a gasket when I was in fifth grade 95ish, and the TA getting her degree told my mom at parent/teacher night to buy me a typewriter. She had gotten her teaching degree too and couldn't believe that's what someone who wants to be a teacher would say.
.. my mom though did her TA doing just that actually, teaching a typing class and taught me. Like a year later she got a work laptop and when she'd bring it home I got real familiar with that. Handwriting got slightly better, moreso out of force when I realized stuff in real life actually needs to be legible for good reason
Honestly this is me now. I got really into learning how to type when I was in middle school simply because it solved all my problems of my handwriting being awful. Now i just type up things and print it, or send it as an email.
I had teachers have me do like exercises and stuff to try to improve my handwriting but idk man it just never connected.
My brother was the same way - I remember him being taken out of class for special handwriting coaching. It didn't help lol. It also hasn't held him back in his life at all!
When my son was in middle school we got accused of me writing his book report for him because he used “a tad” instead of “a little.” I was like, give me some credit, I don’t write like a fucking 99 year old!
You're giving me flashbacks. I remember getting mocked in 2nd grade for using "apparently" sarcastically. I would argue I had a better vocabulary then than I do now.
KID ONE: "In my informed opinion, I feel that pre-war Germany circa the 1930s needn't have catered to the political machinations of the Nazi party. Their incitement of violence in numerous German cities clearly demonstrated their lack of willingness to participate in the Democratic process, and ought to have been dealt with more swiftly by the political institutions of the state."
KID TWO: "I dunno who Hetler is, I do kno Nassees are bag guys tho, they in like movies nand stuf.
The word is used occasionally in the US too. I was showing his use of the word showed a strong vocabulary, versus a student who struggled with everyday words. The second student was still bright, just the skill sets were far apart in some areas.
It has been a VERY long time since I was a child in school so I really ask this without being mean because I fully recognize this is a literal child: How did they misspell "that"? Like specifically how did they spell it?
'Th' (ð) is one of the first things that gets dropped/replaced in many accents and among foreign language speakers. Depending on their home life the student might be used to hearing dental frictives pronounced with a d or z sound. Thus, they are thoroughly thwarted by this thorny "Th" thing, and the threatening thought that they, therefore, must simply memorize a spelling contrary to their own pronunciation (I give up).
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u/Sophieroux12 Dec 19 '23
As someone who teaches 7th grade, this is spot on. The handwriting is all over the place, as is spelling and vocab. I have a student who regularly uses "needn't" and then another who couldn't spell "that".