Weird News

[Sundae]

“Teaching kids to read and write correctly is very important!”

The misspelling appears right outside Marta Valle HS, on a portion of the street where workers apparently cut into the asphalt to get to underground utility lines.

“It’s sad,” said Derek Pacheco, a Flushing securities-industry worker who passes by on his way to work. “It speaks volumes about the dumbing down of American culture.” [1]

Residents in the area said construction crews worked on the street over the summer.

When utilities or contractors perform work on a city street, they are responsible for restoring it correctly and reinstalling all markings, a city official told The Post.

Locals and commuters passing by are stunned that students or administrators at the school haven’t noticed the blunder.

Marta Valle officials couldn’t be reached, but the school’s PTA president, Linda Surles, wasn’t surprised that no one has reported the mistake.

“Nothing surprises me anymore at this school,” she said. “What’s ironic is that the principal has probably painted the lunchroom and rooms inside over about five times since 2010.

“She’s probably spent $100,000 in paint doing and redoing the inside of the school, but she doesn’t notice this right outside her door!” [2]

A Department of Transportation spokesman insisted late yesterday that the spelling error was made by a utility provider — and not the city or any of its contractors — following work performed on Stanton Street.

“We are contacting them to correct the error promptly,” the DOT spokesman said.

But one city worker, who didn’t want to be identified, put the blame on nearby school officials.

“Regardless of who painted it, someone from the school should have been outside supervising, or noticed it by now,” [3]the city worker said. “This is sloppy work.”

It's funny as a photo. Ha ha ha, someone spelled school wrong.
But the article is awful! British and American schools are probably as different as the rest of our culture, but I felt compelled to respond to this article.

[1] Britain is also being dumbed down. I read it most often in tabloids where I can easily find at least one typo and the occasional glaring error (misinterpreting a similie for example). This is received wisdom and in my mind completely incorrect. I'm a pedant who finds errors everywhere, not just from the young.

[2] Linda Surles isn't surprised that no-one noticed the error outside the school. Why? Because she's President of the PTA and obviously hasn't noticed it herself! The Head is too busy working on the interior, where students spend their time, rather than checking the streets outside for spelling mistakes. Umm... sounds good to me. PTA Presidents and parents perhaps only see what they expect to see. It's early and they are in a hurry and have more on their minds. I'd see it, but I have no children and can spot that "Jolly Rodger" on the Pirate Work Board is wrong within a few seconds of entering the classroom.

[3] Because that's what you want school employees to do, right? Take a TA out of a classroom where she is working with children who might otherwise have difficulty following the lesson. Or hearing readers to achieve the school's policy of children reading at school three days a week. Or perhaps the office staff, so that the phones are unmanned. Or the Caretaker, who has various jobs from cleaning up sick to re-roofing the shed where all the outside activity items are stored, as over the weekend it blew off and all the fancy dress stuff got soaked (two pirate outfits took the brunt and were disposed of, but luckily all the clothes underneath just needed a wash and a dry).

Irresponsible journalism.
Just print the photo with a jokey title and let it be.

An attack on the paper, not on any Dwellar.