School

Today was another day subbing in middle school; the subject - English.

Now, I don't consider myself to be an expert on English grammar but I know enough to get by and for the most part English has come easily to me. I have a BA and I am working on a masters.

I could not have passed the little quiz my 7th graders were taking today. What is wrong with this picture? The quiz was on different types of verbs: linking verbs, active verbs and helping verbs.

There was a full page of single spaced text to help the students discern the difference between verb types and quite a few little "tips" that I don't ever remember learning. For example, it's not the verb if there is an "ing" on the end, or if the word is preceded by the word "to". Helping verbs are included as part of the verb in the simple predicate. Active verbs are not necessarily active: love and like and trust are active verbs even though they don't imply visible action.

By the end of the day, I was confused. I could pick out the right answers (for the most part) but I sure couldn't tell you why they were the right answers or what the terminology for the answers should be. I would not have gotten 100% on identifying a helping verb vs. a linking verb. And I am not sure it matters to anyone but the testing entity - whatever that is.

I remember this happening with my own daughter when she brought home math homework - no way it looked like anything I ever saw when I was in school.

I get that things change. Technolgy and history and science need to be continually updated and changed in our schools. But when it comes to English and Math, I am thinking that some things just don't change and maybe we don't need to be re-inventing them for each generation.