I see nothing wrong with a teacher writing a note that long for a barely-turned-three year old! Sure, at her age she could be ready to start writing letters and words, but something that long and complicated is going to be nearly impossible for a kid that age. Remember, Vi isn’t pushing four, she’s barely three! At her age, preschool is more about the social learning than book learning.

And I see nothing wrong with “cuz,” though I would have written it “’cause,” but the teacher probably just wanted to shorten it – imagine the writer’s cramp she got writing those out for all the kids!

Terri: Actually I am aware that some schools do that. But I still don’t think it’s the same thing when we’re talking about preschool. I would be upset if my kid was 10 and the teacher was still letting them spell things incorrectly. But not at 3.

I wonder how Violet is gonna react when her sibling is born? She gets all of the attention….I guess we will see!

Sarah I guess different people view education differently. If it were me, yes I’d have a talk with the teacher or pull them out or the school. Why? Because in preschool I was already reading and writing and maybe my child will do the same at age 3 and 4. I’d like them to get used to seeing words spelled correctly. You are obviously not well versed on the new “don’t correct their spelling because it hurts their self esteem” language program that is being taught in the PRIMARY and SECONDARY grades now. This is not just a preschool thing but it carries into public schools (and private) as well. I have 6th graders that can’t spell simple words because no one corrected them early on. So to you it’s “no big deal” but to me education is very important.

Sarah, I think if people genuinely feel that they would pull a child out of nursery for that kind of thing, it’s taking it too far, but that is still against the rules in most nurseries, I think that’s why people (myself included) were surprised that was written. Like I said, it’s never too early to teach a child proper language, and I would definately not be happy if a teacher had written that with my child at Violet’s age. It’s bad enough getting children to stop using text language without their outside carers writing it down with them. This is not a huge issue that needs to be taken to the extreme, but it wouldn’t take much for the teacher to have written the correct word. You’re right, this time of life should be about playing, I’m very much an advocate of that as children grow up fast enough as it is, but there was no reason to use lazy language (as my mum calls it). My daughter has all the time in the world to pick up bad grammar habits when she is older, but I would like her to learn the correct way first, if only so she knows the difference, and it’s never too early to do that. I think it’s a wonderful thing that the teacher wrote the letter with Violet, and such a cute thing for Jennifer to have to keep, I just find it a lazy oversight to not use the correct grammar.

As an elementary school teacher, I can say that yes, if that child was in grade primary or above, I would correct the spelling. However, given that it’s obviously a note transcribed from what Violet (who is 3, remember) said, I think leaving the “cuz” in is cute, and adds to the note.
Also wanted to say that those saying they would pull their kid out of that school because of “cuz”… you were being sarcastic, right? Parents that do things as drastic as that…well, I don’t think you’re doing your child any favours by reacting that drastically! haha

I can’t believe there are people who think the teacher writing “cuz” is a reason to pull a child out of a preschool. Get a grip, it’s preschool, not 8th grade. This is becoming the age of hyper-parenting, where people blow every tiny little thing out of proportion and act like a child will be damaged if every little thing isn’t done a certain way. The child is only 3 years old, I highly doubt that it’s going to affect her long term is she is allowed to use words like cuz instead of because.

Besides, preschool for 3 year olds doesn’t need to be anything more than playing and having fun and learning to socialize. Children don’t have to have information crammed into their heads every minute of the day in order to turn into productive, intelligent adults. I think some of today’s parents need to take a deep breath, look at the big picture, realize that children don’t have to have enriching experiences 24/7 in order to turn into intelligent adults and just relax.

Bancie,
I don’t seeing anyone complaining about seeing so many pics of Violet. Just that with all these pics, it means that the paps are camped out at Violet’s school EVERY day, and it’s too much. Give the Affleck family some space. Take pics of Violet at school once a month…heck, even once a week would be better then the paps being there EVERY single day. As much as I love seeing pics of celebrities and their kids, I feel bad for them sometimes.

Either way, it’s still very cute

And about her carrying Violet…Brad Pitt recently defended his own comments about him carrying Zahara everywhere, it’s in the new Rolling Stone interview..and he said something like

“I was out trick or treating with my kids in L.A, and I was out with my daughter and this woman comes up to me and says “I always see you carrying her in pictures (in magazines), you need to put her down!” and Brad Pitt said, “That’s because everytime you see me in a magazine, we’re being chased by 20 paparazzi/cars, so you really don’t know what you’re talking about”

It’s possible it wasn’t the teacher that wrote the note. It could have been a teacher’s assistant or a parent volunteer. I wouldn’t view the word “cuz” as evidence the preschool is a bad school.