Setting: Math Cat time, students working diligently on fractions to percents. (11:10 am-ish)
Me at the overhead projector.
I offer a question about forming the fraction 37 259/1000 to a percent.
Then it started, I over here, "No, it ain't!" (One student to another)
I do an experiment: I say, "Students, repeat after me, AIN'T is NOT proper English."
Giggling, they do so. One clever child says, "Yes, it is. It's in the dictionary."
I say, "No way, really? Show me."
Sad, but true...there it was...poking it's ugly head out.
From Merriam Webster dictionary: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ain't
Contract: Am not: Are not: Is not
Gosh (in the dictionary?), I had to swallow my pride and clarify. It is not proper English in this Century, but yes, it is a word."
My students are so smart!
