
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 15, 1992                   TAG: 9203160159
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: F-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

EDUCATORS USE BAD GRAMMAR

SINCE WHEN is it grammatically correct for a plural pronoun to refer to a singular noun? I recently retired, and must have dozed off when the rule was changed.

In your Feb. 28 issue, noted "educator" Joe Clark was quoted as saying: "Any principal who cannot control drug utilization in their school should be horse-whipped." In the same issue, the state superintendent of public instruction stated: "A student cannot be classified as a ninth-grader until such time they pass the three components of the literacy passport."

Yes, these all-too-common errors seem unimportant, but aren't they a symptom of the greater problem? Surely, the answer for our educational shortcomings is not to lower standards, but to insist on quality. JOYCE L. McDONALD FERRUM

by CNB