Expectations have generally slid pretty far south IME.
DD has had a couple of real barracudas, but the rest of her teachers have been total marshmallow peeps in terms of grading the quality of her writing.
I've encouraged the teachers that have higher standards, and on the other side of things, encouraged my DD to view those classes as a way to IMPROVE her writing skills.
Frankly, with some of the English teachers she's had, I
did finally step in since the teacher clearly wasn't going to do so. Then again, our model (virtual school) makes that a bit easier thing to do in a practical sense. At any rate, I started demanding a minimal standard of quality-- and a minimal adherence to the writing process (that is, at least PLANNING before drafting, if not fully 'organizing'). If it didn't meet MY standards, it warranted a re-do. We used the model vividly described by Norman MacLean in
A River Runs Through It, more or less.
My standards, as it happens, are far far higher than any teacher she's had in high school-- including the two AP teachers.
Now, I'm aware that my standards are pretty high. Still, I'm not the kind of grammar and usage stickler that, say, my father was... not to mention the teachers that I recall having.
My son thinks that we are punishing him by making him slog through the editing process with us before he turns it in because he knows he can get an A without the additional effort.
Yes, this has been the crux of the problem. We've dealt with this by honestly appraising the amount of LEARNING happening in those classes taught by the Peeps, as opposed to what she learns when she has a tougher teacher grading and offering feedback. No doubt, she doesn't always appreciate my input (or the teacher's), but there's also no question that she appreciates the improvement in her rhetorical skills. So.
