re: My son's teacher counts off 10pts per misspelled word

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 I don't want the child to start out in life coming up with excuses.

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MF'ing this. Step back a second and look at what you are complaining about. You want the teacher to overlook something that is without a doubt incorrect. It's not berderline. Its not a misunderstanding. It is wrong. Is the teacher tough.....yes. I had a high school English teacher that was just as difficult. I absolutely destroyed any college English classes I was required to take because of her influence.

You sound like the parent that argues with umpires at little league games and you aren't even the coach. Not because of the original post, but because of all of your posts combined in this thread. You really sound like an asswhole.

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You went to the principal over this?

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That's the sad part.

OP, I really hope you read this whole thing....

I do not think you see the bigger picture here. The long term benefits that the teacher was most likely trying to bestow on your child. The long term detriments that you are creating for your child.

You say he's in 7th grade. That is a critical time for learning lessons that are going to pay off in high school and beyond. Spelling is a fundamental skill that we have let go in the shitter because we use technology and spell check as an excuse. Well, spell check doesn't help for shite if you don't know that "humorous" isn't spelled "humerus." Spell check is an aid so that people can type faster and then go back and review their work more quickly. It's not supposed to be a crutch or an excuse to not know how to spell.

Your son is in 7th grade and badly misspelled a word. I would expect a 3rd or 4th grader to misspell "introduce" as "itroduce." How do you miss a letter that is a key part of the word's phonetics? That should kind of trouble you. That's where the teacher comes in...

The teacher obviously has high expectations of his/her students. He/she expects his students to 1) take spelling seriously, 2) pay attention to details, and 3) double check and review their work. Do you seriously have a problem with that? I applaud the teacher for setting high expectations like this in an era where many teachers let mistakes slide so that they can "build self-esteem" and avoid hurting feelings.

Your kid is in 7th grade. Whether he got a 90 or a 60 on this assignment is not going to matter. What WILL matter are the life lessons he learns. You are jeopardizing that lesson by intervening and placing blame on the teacher and principals. In short, you are teaching your son that spelling is not THAT important (it is), and that making 100s on assignments is the most important goal in life at the expense of doing things correctly. Oh yeah, you've also taught him to run to daddy if someone awards him with anything less than perfect grades or evaluations.

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The principles both stand behind the teacher on the issue. At least 2 students go 70's for misspelling words.

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I took off 40 points in these two sentences alone.

Sounds like very principled principals?

The teacher is teaching. Imagine that.

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Does the teacher not realize that with computers and spell check, spelling accuracy is not as important?

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This is asinine. Just because there are calculators doesn't mean you don't need to know how to add and subtract.

I like that they hold them accountable but I do think 10 points is excessive. Our elemtary school policy I believe was 3 points.

You are lucky they are making the effort. Maybe he won't be someone who is regularly embarrassed when spellcheck doesn't catch their errors.

Show respect for the teacher. Your child is in 7th grade so let him make mistakes now.

You made a huge mistake when you talked to the principal.

I saw a great cartoon yesterday. It was a side by side account of parents disciplining their child in front of the teacher(yesteryear) and what goes on now. The now is a parent like you who yells at the teacher while the child is smiling in the background.