Literacy is on life support.

[Different Drummer]

[blm]

1. Funny / sad

[kimbutgar]

3. I substitute teach and make sure I correct the their and there when I encounter it used incorrectly

In their writing! But you are correct. I have met many adults who can’t tell the difference!

[Different Drummer]

5. One of those is Chuck Woolery.

He has had me blocked on Twitter for years for calling him out on a tweet of his in which he used the incorrect form of there/their/they're. It's been so long ago that I don't remember the context anymore.

[Ocelot II]

7. They regularly turn up on DU, along with the misuse of apostrophes.

Their = ownership: "These are their books."
They're = contraction of 'they are': "They're holding their books."
There = location: "They're holding their book over there," or as a pronoun, "There are people holding their books over there."

And:

Its = possessive
It's = contraction for it is.

[GenThePerservering]

6. I recall seeing a demonstration of parents

against a school curriculum. One proud mom had a big sign that said:

"Are children, are choice!"

As for they're, there, their - that's taught in 3rd grace - how can people not get the difference?

[kimbutgar]

8. I was teaching a second grade class and they were writing personal narratives and almost

All of them confused the are and our. I corrected them and told the teacher later and she said that is one of those that takes longer for them to get. We tried to find a worksheet to help them but they were even more confusing. Finally I found an old curriculum book from the 1960’s that had a great explanation! And another teacher had a chart on the wall showing the difference between their, there and they’re.