Teacher doesn't know the difference between singular/plural

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Really. I just don't know what wall to bang my head on.

Last Tuesday I arrive for the lesson - a bit late, so the lesson had already started - she happened to be teaching about neurotransmitters (the subject is psychology - I swear I could've reached orgasm at around this point, since neurotransmitters is specifically what I read about for most of last year, but...) - suddenly I notice this cute word at the bottom: "biochemical's". And, no, a biochemical didn't possess anything.

How on Earth is anyone supposed to take this person seriously, especially when she's trying to teach about the more hard science-y aspects of psychology when she has no clue about elementary grammar?!

I have to spend hours writing up and researching essays for her... when she can't even consult year 1 grammar lessons?!

I mean, if anyone remembers my previous threads in this sub-forum you'd know that I don't hold the education system in very high esteem at all, especially since it's expensive when most information is available online. But... now we're dealing with having to pay to be fed atrocious grammar. There are typos and grammatical errors online (and thankfully on Wikipedia I could correct them in an instant), but at least they're within the comfort of my own bed, and I don't need to pay hundreds to only be faced with basic linguistic retardation. Not to mention I only usually ever encounter people who can't distinguish between possessives and plurals on youtube... and they're usually 12 (and no, I don't get irritated by those, as they're typically talking about Pokemon, not neurotransmitters, so it's to be expected).

I am so close to just blurting out to her "how ret*d could you be?!" - but, she does actually have a friendly nature (her only redeeming quality, I guess - works well with females, it seems, but I require quality, solid content... she's not paid to tell jokes all day!)

In other words, I'm just so frustrated in such situations. I've encountered worse in the past: one IT teacher thought keyboard was spelt 'keybeard' (she was, at least, a non-native writer), but ultimately, besides pointing out their mistakes for correction, I don't know what I'll end up doing in the future, especially as I'm getting ever-angrier and frustrated with education. I mean, I bother about correct grammar in SMSs... and these 'teachers' can't be bothered to spell-check their in-class presentations?

That blows my mind too. Another common oddity is how some people really seem to think the plural of "scientist" is, er, "scientist."

I can't imagine taking a course in psychology to learn about neurotransmitters. A course on neurobiology would likely be a far better choice.

Woah, I'm as much for appropriate grammar implementation as you are, but it was just one little mistake. Why are you getting so angry over a misplaced apostrophe?

This is probably because of how they sound when pronounced. Remember, when learning a new word while in elementary school you are told to sound it out; and they don't sound different enough to catch the end "s" on the plural.

Right, so essentially they are highlighting the sad fact that they're about as familiar with written language as small children. And these are generally not children. We're not talking about sophisticated grammatical knowledge here. Adding an "s" is the most basic method of pluralization in English. Maybe they think it's like "deer" or "elk." A herd of scientist...

Is this that important what matters is if she keeps on making them.

It's a minor detail. Maybe she was tired. Sometimes I edit my work and think it's all good .. only to read it the following day and notice an obvious error. That's life. As long as she's not teaching incorrect information about the subject - I wouldn't worry. I think this is more to do with your perception about the school system in general, rather than this teacher's mistake.

ASDsmom, she read it [the following day] (while talking about it in class) and she still didn't notice it (so, considering many people are actually confused about this grammatical 'nuance', I would argue that she truly didn't know the difference). Also, sometimes all it requires, literally, is (automated) spell-checking. Technically she is presenting incorrect stuff, as she once spelt 'serotonin' 'seratonin'.

As much as I'd like to think it's just my perception this teacher does commit innumerable elementary errors.

Ok, she's a bad speller. Are you not learning anything from her then?

ASDsmom, not sure how that follows, but generally little that I don't already know (or can know easily, from the comfort of my bed; this being the situation with schools/colleges generally)... I suppose it could be useful if I don't already feel like the education system is a waste of space, but until then, I guess it's only natural to complain and fume over such seemingly trivial matters.

Oh, and recently she had like a dozen more apostrophes in plurals, and every single one of them felt like I was being stabbed, I swear. She even made fun of me for pointing them out (we were talking about phobias (or is it phobia's? Oh damn, I've nearly become illiterate), so she said I had apostrophobia. I think I'll file a complaint form.

Its awful when that happen's.

Does this happen all the time or is it just an isolated case? It doesn't seem major and sometimes people just make mistakes, even if they know the correct way.

All the time.

This ... is a college level course? Or high school? I wouldn't be surprised if a high school teacher made that mistake, but a college professor...

There's a certain type of secondary school (high school) teacher that I really hate. Teachers who have heads full of misconceptions, and who use their position of authority over kids to spread these misconceptions into society. It's okay for a teacher to be wrong, but when someone points it out they have a duty to go check whether they are actually wrong or not.