Warning: Rant to follow!!!

MMB- I also could not wait to get to the end of this thread.

Let me explain some background [as it applies to my response here] things about myself: I've been teaching for about 20 years- and I'll probably be one of those that they have to carry out [cold & stiff ] of the classroom. This is what I do, this is what I am, this is how I've been called to serve. I am not part of the NEA crowd or mindset. In fact, I hope I aggravate them at least as much as they aggravate me. I say that, to say I am against protecting incompetency/warm body "teachers" in classrooms. I also believe [and aspire to]that teachers should set a high moral standard for their students [run that'un by the NEA].

I believe this, in part, because, as Mooh pointed out in his original post, children DO notice what their teachers say/do. These same kids also notice what their parents say/do: and PLEASE remember: the parents are the child's first teachers. And I'm saying this generally, certainly not person-specific.

I teach in a beautiful area of Appalachia that was formerly "out in the sticks" - poor white rural. However, as the metro area of a nearby city has encroached, the demographics have changed: now we have very expensive homes/subdivisions being built w/in sight of run-down [i.e., not double wide]trailers. I teach children whose parents expect them to get a good education, alongside with children who are there only to keep the social workers out of the parents' face for truancy charges. [And with kids' "fashion styles" being what they are today, it can be very difficult to tell which is which, especially when you throw in what the kids have to say about their own parents' behaviors.....]

Because I teach music, I deal with regional dialects/phrases a lot as they appear in the folk song material. That's ok, because I am "big" on preserving regional culture- not remaking it. I want these kids to know and understand their roots- I want them to understand those "sayins" their grandparents used. [and since many of my kids are being raised by their grandparents while Mama's out doin' "her" thing, I want to strengthen those bonds with the GPs any way I can- I do not intend to alienate a child from the loving nurture of a grandparent by turning my nose up/their nose up at the way their grandparents talk]

Teaching choral singing brings up a contradiction in all this: we cannot sing the way we talk. I'll show the kids how to form a vowel sound, for instance, and we'll do it correctly- and then, for contrast, we'll do it the way we'd say it. And they laugh! I've never had a kid miss the point on this. And then I stress to them: we have to learn how to sing together well, and we have to learn how to read, write, and communicate correctly.

Then I say this to them: "But I don't wanna' mess wi' the way you tawlk." They know what I'm saying. I choose to fight the cultural homogenization/ "dumbing down" brought on by electronic media. Call it, "doing my thing for diversity...."

Mooh, you could probably mention your concern to the teacher, and she'd either correct what she said, or she'd give you a discourse [!]as to why she does what she does. But from here, I'd say there are bigger concerns to be dealt with. Oops, I mean "with which to deal".

That's my story, and I'm...
TD [not tee'd! really!]