Classical Values :: A movement, not a typo

A movement, not a typo

When I read about the principal who got in trouble with mean-spirited radio talk shows for issuing diplomas referencing the word "educaiton," I initially laughed.

Principal Timothy Freeman fell on his red pen, shouldering responsibility for the diplomas issued to 330 Westlake graduates at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland on Saturday that read board of "educaiton," not "education."

"I was sick to my stomach," said Freeman, who said the documents had been proofread once and sent back for corrections because of problems with the signatures. The new version fixed that, but inserted the typo.

"We just cracked open the box and all of the signatures were fixed. We never even thought to go back and read the small print because we already had," Freeman said.

Jostens reprinted and mailed new diplomas free of charge, but Freeman still called it "the bane of my existence" Thursday after the morning show on WQAL FM/104.1 made fun of the school.

"Our girls softball team had the highest GPA in the state, out of more than 700 teams," said Freeman. "That's not news, but a typographical error by Jostens gets two hours on the radio?"

Well, in fairness, the girls softball team probably contributes more to society than the Board of Educaiton.

And really, why shouldn't they be allowed to call themselves the Board of Educaiton? Does anyone really think they are in the business of Education?

I Googled the word "Educaiton," and I discovered that Cleveland's Wolstein Center is not alone. There is, it seems, a genuine Educaiton movement, and the following examples, while far from comprehensive, at least show how unfair it was to single out a principal in Cleveland.

There are 2890 hits for "Board of Educaiton." 2990 for "Department of Educaiton," and I even found a reference to an "imoprtant law case" called "Brown vresus Board of".... of.... of.... Whatever it is:

Brown vresus Board of Educatoin (full name Brown v. Board of Eductaion of Toepka, Kasnas) was an imoprtant law case in the Untied Staets. This was a case that was decdied by the Superme Court of the United Sttaes which is the highset court in the US.

I always suspected the Superme Court was highset.

In California, there's The Edward Teller Educaiton Center, with the following directions posted:

Directions to ETEC:

The Edward Teller Educaiton Center is located just adjacent to the Lab on Greenville Road near the Laboratory's Eastgate entrance in Livermore, CA.

From I-580:
Exit Vasco Road.
Go south on Vasco and turn left at Patterson Pass Road.
Turn right at Greenville Road.
Turn right at Eastgate Drive, at the Laboratory's east entrance.
Turn right into the parking lot, before the guard gate.

Lodging Options for Workshops:

A number of hotels are located within a short drive to the Edward Teller Educaiton Center and nearby the college campuses of the regional workshops. Click here for more information on hotels in the region.

Hey, that's nice to know. Might check it out the next time I'm in California.

In New York, there's a thing called Educaiton Equity:

Career and Technical Educaiton EQUITY

INTRODUCTION TO OCCUPATIONS
A WAY TO PROMOTE NON-TRADITIONAL ENROLLMENT

It looked so nice next to the state seal that I couldn't resist a screen shot:

According to another website, Colorado has its own Department of Educaiton:

The leadership for the High Plains Learning Organization is committed to activating a visonary, multi-state learning community that builds regional, state, and local capacity to improve learning. Eleven agencies make up the core learning organization and serve as members of the executive board.

Core Learning Organization Members include:

Eric Feder, Colorado Department of Educaiton

At various local levels there are exciting developments in Educaiton. In Illinois, the Evergreen Park Board of Educaiton includes

Kathleen Rohan:

Mrs. Rohan has been a Member of the Board of Educaiton since 2007. Her current term will expire in 2011. She is currently the Co-chairperson of the Facilities Committee and is serving on the Negotiations Committee. Mrs. Rohan works in Labor & Delivery at Little Company of Mary Hospital.

In Ruston, Lousiania, the Cedar Creek School has an "ongoing tradition of excellence in educaiton." And in Denver, a hero teacher received the Boettcher Foundation's "Excellence in Educaiton Award."

California not only has a Department of Educaiton, but they profile Teachers of the Year:

Teacher of the Year

Beginning this month, each issue of California Department of Educaiton CDE Highlights will profile a state or county Teacher of the Year, spotlighting the diverse talent and inspiring stories of some of California's best and brightest teachers. To begin this series, March Highlights focuses on Stanley W. Murphy, California's nominee and one of four finalists for the 2005 National Teacher of the Year.

For those interested in the Family-School Partnership Act, see "Questions and answers from the California Department of Educaiton. Sacramento 2004."

In New Jersey "participation" in a "Discrete Math" program

...is funded by a grant from the New Jersey Department of Educaiton.

More on Discrete Math "here." I'd never heard of "Discrete Math" before, but the idea seems to be to show children how to do all kinds of things by the time they're in the eighth grade:

By grade 8, they can apply such coloring techniques to solve problems which involve avoiding conflicts, such as scheduling committees or final exams, devising zoo habitats, and assigning channels to radio stations.

I never learned any of that, and it shows in the fact that I have never designed a single zoo habitat, nor have I assigned any channels to radio stations. (As it is I can't even seem to find the time to compile and catalog all the state Educaiton Departments in a single blog post.)

But if we move up to the federal govenment, the Department of Educaiton seems pretty busy. There's a Paul Kesner,

Director
Drug-Violence Prevention State Programs
OSDFS/US Department of Educaiton

If you need federal grant money to prepare for tomorrow, this web site tells you to contact the Department of Educaiton Headquarters:

Headquarters Office

U.S. Department of Educaiton, 400 Maryland Ave., SW., Washington, DC, 20202. Contact: Brenda Shade E-mail Address brenda.shade@ed.gov. Telephone: (202) 502-7773.

The Department certainly seems to have plenty of money for grants like this:

From the U.S. Department of Educaiton to Melissa Engelman, David Powers and Sandra Warren (Education), $299,050 for "Preparation of Special Education, Related Services, and Early Intervention Personnel to Serve Infants, Toddlers and Children with Low Incidence Disabilities."

Or this:

Sonya Lopez
Role Lead PI
Department Multicultural Student Affairs
Funder U.S. Department of Educaiton
Title Upward Bound
Amount $342,886.00

A lot of people probably remember Ronald Reagan's insensitive promise to abolish the "Department of Education" (sic) which (so it has been frequently pointed out) has never educated anyone. But in light of their proven track record of disbursing money, might Reagan have been talking about the Department of Educaiton?

Don't laugh. According to a commenter here, he was!

The Reagan Administration was a State Rights advocate, and they tried to disband the U.S. Department of Educaiton during the budget crunch of 1983, and outing Secretary Bell, in the process. Remember all those disabled people fending for themselves when the government needed their allotment from the federal government. Please can't we all agree that the very rich have money to burn and their tax cuts during bad times just doesn't make sense, at least to me.

The State of Nevada offers a reminder that these are in fact two distinct entities, and that we shouldn't assume anything about the role of the federal government:

This site is sponsored by the State of Nevada
The contents of this website were developed under a grant from the Department of Education. However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Educaiton, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government

Reading the subtext carefully, it becomes clear that there's a vast hidden bureaucratic movement at work, and it hides behind what most people assume are typos.

What cannot be spelled cannot be killed. No wonder Reagan couldn't abolish it.

Can thousands of "typos" be wrong? I don't think so.

Calling them typos is merely Educaiton Denial.

Comments

It is a true typo, occuring when people type, rather than write longhand. Switching the "i" and "t" in a tion construction is actually fairly common.

Assistant Village Idiot · June 9, 2008 11:28 AM

Where I teach we have a door marked Commumity Education. Google also shows we're not alone.

Dennis · June 9, 2008 12:46 PM

The question is, whose fault is it? Is it the princpals fault fore proofreading it once? Is it Jostens fault for not proofreading the diploma? The real question is why do we really need to care?

I'd like to know how many students caught the mistake before it was brought to the attention of the media?

John · June 9, 2008 12:51 PM

heh... when I read that last bit it reminded me of those inane "Truth" ads.

darelf · June 9, 2008 12:57 PM

Brown vresus Board of Educatoin (full name Brown v. Board of Eductaion of Toepka, Kasnas) was an imoprtant law case in the Untied Staets. This was a case that was decdied by the Superme Court of the United Sttaes which is the highset court in the US.

This looks like most of my typing--why my fingers insist on hitting letters out of order I don't know, but they do and I can't stop them. So I proofread what I type--as the typesetters should have done.

I'm curious why they chose to go in and re-enter something that didn't need correcting, but I don't see how this is the principal's fault.

tim maguire · June 9, 2008 05:23 PM