In a Grammar Fury.

Recently, THIS was published in the local newspaper:



Go ahead, click through the image and check it out. These articles are written by high school students - and apparentely, they even have a HS faculty advisor (who is obviously asleep at the wheel). If you care at all about English, grammar, and education, you'll be infuriated. And I do, so I was ... which prompted me to write this letter to the editor. I have sent it, signed, and am inclined to believe it will be printed. I'll keep this updated if anyone has the gumption to tell me I'm wrong or otherwise engage in a debate on the subject.

Letter to the Editor:
I don’t remember the last time I was this ferociously angry. Let me explain.

A little over a year ago, I made the decision to move back to this area. I was excited to get back to the place I loved so much. I have very fond memories of growing up in this community, and I have always had visions of returning here to raise a family.

Aside from my parents and my church, the next biggest influence on my formative years was the Milan school district. True, I had a blast in school, but I also gained a good, foundational education. My classmates and I challenged each other, comparing grades, jockeying for class rank, even bragging on our ACT scores. Of course, our teachers encouraged our behavior. They were demanding and difficult, giving out homework and assignments that we sometimes loathed. But we begrudgingly did what they asked, and became better and smarter because of it.

Recently, I picked up the Standard and read the MHS page. It didn’t take long for my proud remembrances to be crushed. These articles were the stuff of drafts, not the final printed pieces. I understand the articles weren’t written by Hemingway, but I wasn’t expecting brilliant content – just Basic English. Who is responsible for the egregious spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, punctuation omissions, incorrect verb tenses – heavens, even the wrong word altogether? This was allowed, even approved by someone?? Did anyone even bother to read them before sending them to the paper, or are we just counting on our word processing programs to teach English nowadays? Were we hoping our newspaper editors would correct them, so the authors learn nothing from the experience? If our educators don’t have enough pride in their students’ published work to help them get it right, then don’t waste the newspaper space.

Why are we setting our kids up to fail, by hiring teachers who casually say that it’s “really easy to get an A” in their class? With such mottos, the only thing that’s ‘easy’ is how easy it is to see why the articles were so disastrously edited – or disastrously not edited. It will be ‘easy’ to see why students’ English scores will be so pitiful on the ACT. It will be ‘easy’ to see why they won’t even get interviewed for good jobs.

I sincerely hope our school board read the articles, and is as infuriated as I. Perhaps it’s not a new building we need, but teachers who actually teach our students. We certainly didn’t have ideal facilities in my era, but that was completely irrelevant to the teachers who wouldn’t let us squeak by with a mediocre effort. It didn’t matter to them if the paint was peeling off the wall, a D effort earned a D grade (and any extra help you needed to get a better grade).

What a sad disservice we are doing to our young community members. It makes me furious that our kids are graduating without such basic knowledge. It’s pathetic, and breaks my heart to say that unless an acutely drastic change occurs, no child of mine will ever walk the halls of my alma mater.

Most sincerely,
Laura Booth