My experience is similar to your own. Most teachers were pretty much ho-hum, with a very few bright gems scattered in among the lumps of coal. Also, I knew a woman once (in college) who when George Bush the Senior was mentioned to her, inquired unsure of herself, "He's a republican, right?" OTOH, she graduated engineering school with straight As. (She was very tall and staggeringly beautiful and I often wondered if she didn't pretend to be dumber than she really was so men - and maybe women as well - might not be so intimidated by her.) If this is a poor example, I can think of other, similar cases. Sure, there are people who miss out on a lot, but are nevertheless highly functional.

I think the grading issue should be a judgement call for the particular teachers; however, I would hope that most would agree that a student should NOT loose substantial points in a science class for mistakes in spelling or grammar. If the teacher can easily infer the intended meaning (and that meaning corresponds to a correct solution), then it's fine (even desirable) that that the student not be marked down. The exception here would be for technical words. A student studying biology, for example, ought to be required to spell and use correctly a small glossary of technical vocabulary specific to the field.

After all, a student will be marked down in English class for mistakes in language. I don't think teachers should necessarily reduce their history grades for the same reason. If it's not clear that the student has actually answered the question correctly, by all means, withhold all credit.

k