It is fair to say that any one of us, including me, can be guilty of illiterate expression. Conversely, most of us are not charged with the professional responsibility of teaching language arts to our children. It seems to me we should not tolerate Clover Park Schools teaching our youth, by example, how to be illiterate.
I have a friend, Richard Silverman, who I met way back about 4 1/2 hours ago at the Steilacoom Boulevard Starbucks. We were talking about literacy. One thing led to another when he told me about Clover Park Schools latest effort to teach our young people how to be illiterate.
After our conversation I drove to Clover Park Schools Oakbrook Elementary School located just around the corner at 7802 – 83rd Av SW, Lakewood, WA 98498.
Based on how the sign reads, it indicates to me that maybe the students are supposed to drop off and pick up their parents at elementary school.
Maybe grandparents are dropping off student’s parents, but when you think it through, parents are too old for elementary school.
Is there a punishment for parents who violate the posted Clover Park Schools rule, “Parent Drop Off And Pick Up ONLY,” when they drop off students instead of parents?
What about other people who might be authorized to drop off students, such as neighbors, grandparents, friends, older brothers and sisters or god-parents? Of course in today’s environment, god-parents are probably not allowed on school grounds because of separation of church and state.
How about students being delivered to elementary school by limo or an Uber Taxi?
In spite of Clover Park Schools failure to clearly communicate, I think I might know what they are trying to say. Maybe they should reprint the sign to read “Student Drop Off and Pick Up ONLY”.
Normally I would rather share my observation and opinion in a less public manner by contacting the Clover Park Schools Superintendent, Deborah L. LeBeau, but she has a consistent track record for never responding to my phone messages or e-mail.
According to Ms. LeBeau, the mission of the Clover Park School District is to teach each child what he or she needs to know to succeed and contribute to the community.
One thing each child needs is to become literate.
You may not agree with me, but that is the way I see it.
And let us not misuse the apostrophe as in the plural possessive “students’ parents” and “Clover Park Schools’ _______”.
If you axe me, I say you don’t need no special learning about no language arts or nothin’. Know what I mean?
We have missed your column lately. We are glad to see you are still actively keeping us on our toes looking for grammatical errors in our daily lives. Thank you, Joe