This Test Brought To You By...

1. zav
   December 2nd, 2008 at 3:48 pm

   Ok. Please pay a little more attention to the difference between possessive and plural. It's basic grammar school English.

   Incorrect:
   A teacher who could afford to print out the tests for his classes has taken to selling ads on his students test.

   Correct:
   A teacher who could afford to print out the tests for his classes has taken to selling ads on his students' tests.

   Incorrect:
   What kind of a message would you put on your kids test?

   Correct:
   What kind of a message would you put on your kid's test?

   Plural = ending with an s.
   Possessive = ending with an 's.
   plural possessive = ending with an s'.

   The less we pay attention to basic accuracy, the more we expose others to our mistakes. It's not like we have to use a semicolon or anything. this is just the one of the basics of using English at a 5th grade level.

2. Scott-O
   December 2nd, 2008 at 3:49 pm

   I would advertise a tutoring service or, better yet, use a slogan that would help the test taker. Something like "King Phillip Cast Off Five Green Ships", "Pi = 3.1415", etc.

   Or "Timmy- if I had 10 more dollars this would have been an easy "A"- Love, Mom"

3. Jake D.
   December 2nd, 2008 at 4:09 pm

   I would probably write "Zav could have corrected the grammar mistakes in a less douchecanoe manner."

4. Jill Harness
   December 2nd, 2008 at 4:16 pm

   Agreed Jake D.
   Really, I typed it without double checking it and that was my bad. What Zav didn't point out is that I wrote it without making sense at first by saying "A teacher who could afford" regardless of grammar, that just doesn't make sense.

5. Noelegy
   December 2nd, 2008 at 4:23 pm

   Why does this situation exist in the first place? Why is the teacher unable to afford to print out tests for his students? Why is the teacher in the position of having to pay for printing out tests?

6. Evil Pundit
   December 2nd, 2008 at 5:12 pm

   Proposed ad:

   "Steve, you better pass this test or you're grounded for a month -- Dad."

7. Ola Amigo
   December 2nd, 2008 at 5:56 pm

   Good to see they're doing their calculus in any case.

8. darlzwik
   December 2nd, 2008 at 5:56 pm

   I would advertise the local home school group

9. xultar
   December 2nd, 2008 at 6:12 pm

   WHAT DOES THIS SAY ABOUT AMERICA PEOPLE!?!

   OMG this makes me angry!

   Why in the HAYLE does a teacher have to use his own money to print out tests?

   Why must a teacher sell ads on freaking EXAMS. This is SICK!!!

   American dominance and leadership is gone.

10. Woogie
    December 2nd, 2008 at 6:19 pm

    "Cheat and we'll break your legs."

11. Tony LaRocca
    December 2nd, 2008 at 6:32 pm

    McDonalds: "Do well on this test, or you'll wind up working here."

    And I agree with previous posters - the lack of funding of our country's public education system is a disgrace.

12. Ali S.
    December 2nd, 2008 at 7:49 pm

    "By putting your name on this test you agreeing to give me the Power of Attorney."

13. Alex
    December 2nd, 2008 at 8:06 pm

    What's next? Selling the answers? Hey, actually, that's a good idea!

14. Edward
    December 2nd, 2008 at 8:23 pm

    I would haul my child out of that school and find a place that had a better perspective on life. Unfortunately, that place might be my kitchen table.

15. qwhacker
    December 2nd, 2008 at 10:01 pm

    i think the teacher should put the ads in a little bit better. like,

    Jimmy has $500 and needs to purchase building supplies from (YOUR COMPANY NAME HERE). If the cost of.... etc.

    Just work the company names, slogans, etc into the questions. subliminal messages for the win!

16. weeble warble
    December 2nd, 2008 at 10:08 pm

    I'm a music student at FSU, and the College of Music has completely done away with making copies outside of copying music score to save money in the budget. We are responsible for printing out all of our assignments/syllabi and even our evaluation forms are online now. This makes a lot of sense for college students because we have student online accounts, but for high school, this is unacceptable!

17. Johnny Cat
    December 2nd, 2008 at 10:35 pm

    How is that subliminal?

18. qwhacker
    December 3rd, 2008 at 2:05 am

    no, this isn't subliminal, but if the teachers worked the company names into the questions it would be somewhat subliminal...

19. Rocky
    December 3rd, 2008 at 10:20 am

    Here's a math question: "If your typical school employs one administrator for every teacher, is 'funding' of schools the real problem?"

20. Scott-O
    December 3rd, 2008 at 10:44 am

    Rocky hit the nail DIRECTLY on the head. If we rid of 90% of the useless bureacrats and put the money saved into the classrooms then we would probably see a sizeable increase in the quality of the education our children receive. Naturally, the odds of the education system doing away with resource wasting unions and bureaucrats is as likely as my having a colo-primate-ectomy.

21. Christophe
    December 3rd, 2008 at 2:05 pm

    "Sponsored by Fleet enema"

    I'm sure this one would make some headlines

22. ChrisM70
    December 3rd, 2008 at 2:10 pm

    A school that can't afford to print tests?

    What kind of a budget does this school have?
    What is wrong with the parents if they won't pay to fund basic printed materials for schools?

    The original story says that it costs him 3¢ per copy. The school can't work out a deal or find a place that would print them cheaper? Could they not get their own copying machine?

    Our country's priorities are completely screwed up.

    The last thing a teacher needs to do is spend time figuring out ways on how to keep his/her corporate sponsors happy, or how to bring in more revenue. They should spend their time TEACHING KIDS.

    It would probably also help if the teachers got more help from the parents, too.

23. Rocky
    December 3rd, 2008 at 9:50 pm

    Thanks for that, Scott-O.

    ChrisM70, maybe you ar onto something. How about a volume discount, and at the bottom the copying company advertise on the test saying they were the one who printed it off?

24. darlzwik
    December 4th, 2008 at 3:21 pm

    Read "The Underground History of American Education" By former New York State and City teacher of the year, John Taylor Gatto.

25. Noelegy
    December 4th, 2008 at 9:52 pm

    Lack of funding? Not so much. Money going to the wrong places and people? Um, yeah. Look at what the Dallas (Texas) Independent School District is going through right now. DISD has metric craploads of money poured into it every year, and it has a 50% non-graduation rate. As someone else said, get rid of most of the bureacract and administration, and actually put the money where it will do some good (merit-based raises for teachers is a good start).

26. Rocky Rook
    December 4th, 2008 at 10:17 pm

    I think the teacher is being very innovative. That is the American spirit ... you find a solution to get the job done even in the face of adversity. I agree that there is an underfunding problem, but that teacher is one smart person who is potentially teaching two lessons with that 'sponsered-by' quiz.

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