Friday, August 19, 2011

You'd think the Secretary of Education would know better....

Oh, dear:

Far too few of their high school graduates are actually prepared to go on to college. I feel very, very badly for the children there.


-- Arnie Duncan, U.S. Education Secretary, speaking about problems in the Texas public school system

And I feel bad for the United States that its Secretary of Education makes errors in grammar such as the one above. (To "feel badly" is to have one's sense of touch be impaired. What is needed in the quotation above is a predicate adjective - not an adverb.)

Okay, okay. Call me a grammar nazi. I don't care.
~~~

2 comments:

  1. You are not a grammar nazi. Just someone who cares about language. After 38 years of teaching I cringe when I see the way former students post on Facebook. It makes me feel as if I accomplished nothing.

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  2. Thanks, Jay. I really appreciate the affirmation!

    I doubt very much that you accomplished "nothing" in all your years of teaching. I'm aware that the young do not consider it necessary to be precise or correct in online communication. Those whom you taught at least know better; of that I'm easily persuaded!

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