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Darts and Demagogues Arguing For English-Only Initiatives Under a Misspelled Banner

By Ted Hesson June 23, 2009 1:19 PM

We all make spelling mistakes. I'll be the first to admit that I've been plagued by certain words that I can't remember how to spell ("bureaucracy" comes to mind...France can keep that one). But you can't hold a conference addressing English-only initiatives and then spell the word "conference" wrong. Amazingly, though, that's what happened at the American Cause National Conference this past Saturday (see our post about the meeting here).

At a meeting where Conservative leaders like Pat Buchanan belittled Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor for using children's books to improve her grammar in college, a banner hung proudly over the attendees celebrating the "2009 National Conferenece," according to a post on Think Progress. Really, before you go ranting about the aptitude of an Ivy League graduate, you at least have to proofread the sign above your head. That's just common senese.

And while we're on the topic, there's an interesting piece by Mary Ann Zehr about bilingual education on the Education Week website. The article is responding to this video segment that aired on "The Today Show" (see below). The segment poses the question: Should U.S. education be bilingual?

(Photo from Think Progress)

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