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One thing comes to mind.....I always correct my kids when they say....."Me and _____ are ................."!!!!
They are to the point were they laugh and say...."I know, I know" and correct themselves
Verbal skills are learned from such an early age that if a child misses out due to a poor teacher or a unskilled parent, they will be lost for a long time.
Lost for a lot longer than we can imagine.
On a recent stroll with my mother, we got to chatting with one of her neighbors. He kept saying things like, “Between you and I, … ” or “Me and my wife did such and such.” I didn’t comment at first because 1) my mother would have slapped me silly, and 2) I couldn’t believe that a fourth-grade teacher (YES!) was talking like that.
After we’d discussed the ‘new math,’ I asked, “Do you teach other subjects besides math?”
He said, “Yes.”
I asked, “English?”
“Yes.”
My mother’s say-it-and-I’ll-tear-you-a-new-one glare put an end to that line of questioning.
Throughout the conversation, he said, “Between you and I … “ five times, and “Me and someone did something” four. It was #4 that drove me over the edge. We’d gotten back to the new math, about how hard it was to catch onto, and he said, “Between you and I, me and some of the other teachers resisted teaching it at first.”
I said, “Between you and me.”
He leaned forward, conspiratorially, as if I were about to let him in on a secret.
I said, “It’s between you and me. Since between is a preposition, its object is me.” He stared, then huffed and stomped off.
Two weeks later in PETCO, I looked up from a display into his glowering face. Startled, I smiled and squeaked a greeting.
He barked, “It’s between you and me!”
I continued with the same idiotic smile because I couldn’t think of a word to say.
Apparently he’d done some research* and was reporting back to me. Had he convoluted the thing so his memory of it was he’d said between you and me and was now confirming it, or was he conceding that it was indeed between you and me, like I’d said, and he was angry because he had been wrong?
I’ll probably never know. He again huffed and stomped off.
If he talks like that so easily out of school, it’s very likely he talks like that in school … in his classroom! He verbally cancels out every rule he puts on the chalkboard. Every fourth grade class moves on to grade five saying, “Between you and I,” and “Me and whoever do whatever.” If I were a good person, I’d bring it to somebody’s attention … the School Board? The City Council? God? Help me out here, folks!!
*What research does a fourth-grade teacher do to find out the case of a pronoun that follows a preposition?
Oh yeah ... I attended California schools about one hundred years ago. My eighth-grade teacher Mrs. Johnson, a grizzled-up old woman (she had to have been forty if she was a day!!!), pounded the English language and the correct pronunciation of the letter r into my brain. Then, I wanted her dead. Now, I bless the day she was born.
I was raised speaking a different language, and learned English when I was going to school in my teens. I did learn it the right way I think. I learned the grammer first and then learned to speak it. I do understand why "ain't" and "Me an her..." are not a proper way to speak. But can you explain what to use instead of "Where's it at?" I am still in the process of learning the language. Thank you.
On a recent stroll with my mother, we got to chatting with one of her neighbors. He kept saying things like, “Between you and I, … ” or “Me and my wife did such and such.” I didn’t comment at first because 1) my mother would have slapped me silly, and 2) I couldn’t believe that a fourth-grade teacher (YES!) was talking like that.
After we’d discussed the ‘new math,’ I asked, “Do you teach other subjects besides math?”
He said, “Yes.”
I asked, “English?”
“Yes.”
My mother’s say-it-and-I’ll-tear-you-a-new-one glare put an end to that line of questioning.
Throughout the conversation, he said, “Between you and I … “ five times, and “Me and someone did something” four. It was #4 that drove me over the edge. We’d gotten back to the new math, about how hard it was to catch onto, and he said, “Between you and I, me and some of the other teachers resisted teaching it at first.”
I said, “Between you and me.”
He leaned forward, conspiratorially, as if I were about to let him in on a secret.
I said, “It’s between you and me. Since between is a preposition, its object is me.” He stared, then huffed and stomped off.
Two weeks later in PETCO, I looked up from a display into his glowering face. Startled, I smiled and squeaked a greeting.
He barked, “It’s between you and me!”
I continued with the same idiotic smile because I couldn’t think of a word to say.
Apparently he’d done some research* and was reporting back to me. Had he convoluted the thing so his memory of it was he’d said between you and me and was now confirming it, or was he conceding that it was indeed between you and me, like I’d said, and he was angry because he had been wrong?
I’ll probably never know. He again huffed and stomped off.
If he talks like that so easily out of school, it’s very likely he talks like that in school … in his classroom! He verbally cancels out every rule he puts on the chalkboard. Every fourth grade class moves on to grade five saying, “Between you and I,” and “Me and whoever do whatever.” If I were a good person, I’d bring it to somebody’s attention … the School Board? The City Council? God? Help me out here, folks!!
*What research does a fourth-grade teacher do to find out the case of a pronoun that follows a preposition?
hats off to ya! i think you were polite so i dont know why he was so upset. the only way we will learn is from others that correct us right?
I was raised speaking a different language, and learned English when I was going to school in my teens. I did learn it the right way I think. I learned the grammer first and then learned to speak it. I do understand why "ain't" and "Me an her..." are not a proper way to speak. But can you explain what to use instead of "Where's it at?" I am still in the process of learning the language. Thank you.
My pet peeve is when people say INK PEN. It just drives me crazy! ALL pens are ink. INK PEN is just redundant.
However, when I moved to North Carolina from New Jersey, I found a paper in my front yard that one of the kids in the neighborhood had dropped. Imagine my horror when I read the words on the paper that was titled HOMONYMS: tin/ten, pin/pen etc!
Perhaps this explains why that is where I first met people that said, "INK PEN." They needed to differentiate between a pen and a pin.
I notice that many people choose not to pronounce certain "t's": they say 'innernet' instead of inTernet, and 'innerstate' rather than 'inTerstate'.
I have heard this by news broadcasters, media political analysts, 60Minutes, etc. It is just disgusting to hear from these people, who are paid for speaking. It should not be so hard for them.
Larry King usually properly pronounces the first R in libRary, and the R in FebRuary. Cool.
He has standards.
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pens and pins
