Despite the active presence of grammar police, New Carlisle residents’ spelling and grammatical accuracy have come under fire. Main & Lake has found that the criticisms are merited.

Friday, a post was made on the popular Facebook group “You Know You’re From New Carlisle If…” criticizing Tecumseh Local Schools because of an error in spelling “August” on the sign outside the elementary school.

“Glad I didn’t go to School here. Lol.” read the caption of the post. It is unclear if the poor syntax and unnecessary capitalization of “school” were included as irony. The post launched a debate about several things, including whether the sign was an honest mistake or a result of alcohol abuse, and whether children should receive poor grades for answering incorrectly on spelling tests as a result of the sign’s mistake. Two men also engaged in a war of words that, if taken at face value, indicated threats of physical violence toward one another.

The important question, however, is: does the original poster have a point about the poor spelling and grammar of New Carlisle’s residents? Or is he way off base in his assertion that Tecumseh Local Schools have done a poor job educating students in English? Main & Lake studied each comment on the thread to determine the truth.

The Study

At the time of publication, the post has received 53 comments (including replies). Of those, 14 had proper spelling, punctuation, and grammar, while 39 had at least one error. That equals a 26.4% grammatical success rate for “You Know You’re From New Carlisle If…” commenters, including the original poster and those calling each other idiots.

This study doesn’t account for commenters who might not have attended Tecumseh Local Schools. Because of Facebook’s privacy settings and users voluntarily withholding information, that data is impossible to find. Comments where only a person’s name was tagged were not included, nor were comments featuring only stickers or emojis. Also, due to the nature of internet lingo, comments including acronyms such as “lol” and “wtf” were considered correct, provided they had the proper spelling and punctuation.

Another Tecumseh Local Schools gaffe was posted in the comments. This TLS Facebook update misspelled the word “elementary” badly enough to make the creator of Hooked on Phonics roll over in his grave.

Imagine, if you will, that other New Carlisle institutions operated at a 26.4% success rate.

What if you tried to jump off the diving board at the New Carlisle Pool, only to find the pool at 26.4% water capacity? What if only 26.4% of the streets were clear of potholes? What if only 26.4% of the food at the grocery store was fresh? What if only 26.4% of Tecumseh school buses were operational? What if the police only nabbed 26.4% of the criminals operating in town? I think we can all agree that none of those scenarios would be considered acceptable.

A Teacher’s Opinion

Main & Lake reached out to a former teacher at Tecumseh, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals from the community as part of the “War on Teachers” movement. Much like Christianity and police, teachers have become targets of scorn from the radical fringes of society. We asked for her thoughts on the sign and the overall state of academia in the city and school district.

“I saw the sign, and it opened up my eyes,” she said. “Life is demanding without understanding, so I hope this prompts parents and children to take learning seriously. Improper spelling can make one look quite foolish. At the same time, I think it’s unfair to judge an entire city’s ability to form coherent sentences or spell simple words by the comments on a Facebook post. Just as it is silly to judge a school district’s ability to educate because someone — someone who is probably not even a teacher — made a mistake on a sign.”

We then asked why spelling and grammar is so important.

“In life, one always needs to be able to communicate. In today’s world, that means being able to write well. With modern technology, fewer interactions are face to face, so the ability to communicate clearly and without error through writing is crucial. No one’s gonna drag you up to get into the light where you belong unless you put in the work to improve,” she concluded.

What is the Solution?

The ability to speak English is what separates the United States of America from so many uncivilized nations around the world. The minute we let that go by the wayside is the minute our very way of life is threatened.

There is no easy solution to this issue. Based on the popularity of the Facebook post, it is safe to assume that Tecumseh officials are aware of these blunders. Whether they take the necessary steps to improve the English education of our students is the remaining question.