What if it weren’t in a specifically American context, though?
Anyway, I once read a novel by an American writer that had had the spelling Britishised (Ooh, that looks odd in writing!) and it was just wrong wrong wrong. As I recall it, no other changes had been made; just the spelling. And I think the text included at least a note or a sign or a letter or something in it with the word “grey”. Eurgh! :mad:
I completely disagree with the suggestion to have footnotes, though. These do not belong in any work of fiction unless the original writer has put them there (and quite frankly, they really need to know what they’re doing).
I think it’s about half-way through the (British?) English edition of Smilla’s Sense of Snow that there’s an untirely unnecessary translator’s footnote to something. it was really jarring, and achieved exactly what I mentioned earlier: it threw me out of the fictional world.
Gray is more common in American English, and grey is more common in British English, but both can be seen in American English, and I would not associate grey with a Britishism.
I use *grey *because it looks nicer. It’s completely a conscious stylistic choice for me, and one of the few freedoms of spelling I’m still allowed. (The other being “judgement”.) *Colour *and *honour *are very British to American eyes, *grey *isn’t. It’s never even been caught by a teacher on an English paper as a misspelling, so I’m cool with it.
In a social studies class in high school our teacher was talking about how you shouldn’t stereotype people based on race and as an example mentioned the one about blacks liking watermelons.
In our class there were identical twin sisters who were black. One of them, who I thought was sleeping, lifted her head from her desk and said, “But I do like watermelons.” Her sister said that she liked them too. I thought it was pretty funny.
I got marked off in maybe 3rd grade for theatre instead of theater by teacher even though according to her it was not technically wrong. Although according to spell check on the ol’ computer it is. F.Y.I this was a Texas school
I had the same experience in fourth grade with the word “honour.” For some reason, I had come across the word only in British books. Possibly ones by Enid Blyton.
My ninth-grade history teacher, in discussing scientific advances of the early twentieth century, explained the theory of relativity like this: In ancient times, people thought the Earth was the center of the universe. Later, they thought that the sun was the center of the universe. But Einstein realized that there is no center of the universe - everything is relative.
That line of reasoning would put all of these as valid words.
French is a different language with different rules.
Brown Eyed Girl is correct. That is the “official” classification. Just like “lighter then air craft” are hot air balloons. I knew what it was and even to some extent where it would fall in the “A” volume because Dad had purchased the first volume of the Popular Science/Mechanics encyclopedia and I had read it cover to cover at least a dozen times.
I tend to make the Geek Squad just look like a normal squad.
Norinew: That whole “Even a tiny drop of alcohol is catastrophic” seems to be prevalent in schools today. I’ve had several friends’ kids, when friends and I were having a beer together on various occasions, tsk tsk us and tell us alcohol is bad and we shouldn’t drink it. Period. I’ve heard several variations of “And children shouldn’t tell adults what they can or cannot do” because of this.
As far as things teachers have said that were wrong, I have two examples, both from the same teacher:
7th grade, general science, teacher was a coach who had to also teach a class to justify the salary and we already had health covered. So she was the jr. high science teacher.
On one occasion, she stated, I think because of a typo in the book, that the Earth and Sun were 50,000 miles apart. A friend and I both tried to correct her, and she blew up and said, “You boys think you’re smarter than me and who knows, maybe you are, but I’m the teacher and I’m always right inside this classroom.” We let it drop and gave the answer she expected on the test.
The other time was when talking about tornadoes, she said, “When the weather is right for a tornado, I’m glad to see it rain. The falling rain prevents tornadoes from forming, so there will never be a tornado during the rain.” There was a picture of a funnel cloud touching down during a rain storm in the text book. We decided not to point this out to her.
Well, no, because the errors of a child (or the errors of an adult, for that matter) are recognized as errors, as opposed to dialectical variation. (Linguists do study errors, but they do not confuse things recognized as such by the relevant speakers for legitimate variation.)
Right, and different dialects have different rules as well.
IMHO, that whole “even a drop is catastrophic” is as wrong and as harmful as the anti-drug programs that lump together marijuana and meth! Children need to be taught the truth, dammit! I’ve exposed my children to alcohol (in very limited quantities of course), as they’ve shown interest in it, in the privacy of my home. If I’m having a glass of wine, and my 11YO wants to try a sip, I let her. (So far, she’s only cared for the very sweet ones, predictably; in fact, last Thanksgiving when we were having ice wine with our dessert, she got her own glass of it! Now, ice wine is so sweet that for the adults, I serve it in 2oz portions; she got about an ounce, and the wine is about 8% ABV). I just think that it’s more important to teach children about moderation than to teach them “everything is evil!”
Nitpicking is what binds us all together into the SDMB, isn’t it? Hot air balloons are lighter than air craft, but so are hydrogen balloons, blimps, and Zeppelins.
My example is that I was insisted that objects fall at the same rate regardless of weight, and the teacher insisted that heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones of the same cross section. This was in 5th grade, I believe. Of course, both of these statements are misinformation, I suppose, without some additional caveats.
When I was under 21 I could drink beer when I was with my mom or dad. Not too much, but a can or two. Then after turning 21 all of a sudden the beer tasted horrible.
But anyway, seeing how there are a lot of alcoholics in my family on my mom’s and dad’s side, but I rarely drink, I also think that the whole “even a drop” thing is complete B.S..
In general the less dense one will have a lower terminal velocity. In extreme cases the less dense one will not fall at all. A golf ball falls faster than a ping-pong ball falls faster than a tuft of thistledown. Is this esoteric knowledge?
Oh, I agree that it’s a sure way to mess up the kids, just pointing out that it appears to be the new trend in education.
The nice thing with parents and alcohol, at least here in my home state, is that parents or legal guardians are allowed to serve their children/wards alcohol, reasonably, with no legal consequence (the law expressly allows for it). This means, generally, kids should at least get a decent education on it at home.
As far as 9th-grade history is concerned, that isn’t that bad. The basis of relativity is that there’s no preferred reference frame, no fixed point, no center. The rest is just math, which isn’t particularly relevant to a freshman history class.
