Education Leaders Endorse Sheheen, Bad Grammar
S.C. Senator Vincent Sheheen (D-Kershaw) has received the endorsement of thirteen new educrats in his campaign to become the Democratic party’s 2010 gubernatorial nominee.
The endorsements were announced via a campaign-sponsored email from Mary Ann Blaskowitz, who won the state’s “Teacher of the Year” award back in 1982 (i.e. well before they had electricity and running water in Kershaw County).
“Recently, I joined education leaders from around the state to announce my support for Vincent Sheheen’s campaign to get South Carolina moving again,” Blaskowitz writes. “Today, I’m proud to announce that even more school leaders have come forward to support our efforts.”
Alright, alright … so far, so good (well, assuming you think the endorsement of those responsible for our state’s “epic academic fail” is something to be proud of).
But let’s continue, shall we?
“Vincent Sheheen knows that our local schools and their students depend on dedicated parents, hardworking classroom teachers and support staff, accountable school board members, and visionary principals and administrators to be successful,” Blaskowitz continues.
Ummm … hate to break it to you Mary Ann, but our local public schools are not successful. That’s the problem.
Anyway, the next sentence of the letter got our grammatical radar buzzing …
… today, Vincent sends his boys to the same public schools his mother sent him, and where I first met him, over two decades ago.
Huh? Is that how our public schools taught sentence structure back in 1982?
No wonder Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer was brought up thinking it was okay to say that he “didn’t know where the governor was at.”
Bad grammar from supporters aside, every inroad made by Sheheen with the education establishment is another nail in the coffin of S.C. Superintendent of Education Jim Rex, whose gubernatorial campaign was announced last month.
Comments
By LStewart on September 17th, 2009 at 10:42 am
#1 – the only way SC schools WILL be successful is if you put the right people in place to lead the charge. The fact that educators endorse Sheheen over Rex says a lot.
#2 – e.e. cummings signed his name in all lowercase letters and look how famous he was. If we all spoke and wrote in grammatically correct English all the time we would all sound like robots.
By Freddie Guy on September 17th, 2009 at 10:59 am
Sheheen has a fundraising advantage over the other guys in the field and is getting the grassroots support of many local establishment Dems that will help on the local level, once this thing truly kicks off.
Jim Rex: I respect Jim Rex’s credentials as a educator, but don’t think he is deserving of the promotion that he is seeking. It would have been a struggle for Rex to get reelected to his current seat.
Dwight Drake: Being a big corporate lobbyist will give you inroads to fundraising, he will have problem convincing the public that he is working for their common good. You can go from being a legislator to a lobbyist (lucrative move), but can’t reverse course and decide to become a politician after lobbying. See: WhiisDwightDrake.com
Robert Ford: Probably still has $32.80 in his account. God bless his soul.
Whadya think?
Fred
By Barney Fife on September 17th, 2009 at 11:24 am
Isn’t Sheheen’s mother on the State Board of Education?
Awkward!
By Biggie Tea on September 17th, 2009 at 11:27 am
I think any grammatical error is offset by her use of the now sadly disappearing Oxford comma in the quote “Vincent Sheheen knows that our local schools and their students depend on dedicated parents, hardworking classroom teachers and support staff, accountable school board members, and visionary principals and administrators to be successful.” Sincerely,
a nerd.
By HMMM on September 17th, 2009 at 11:50 am
Lamest post ever.
By brian on September 17th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
I think Vincent is the best Democrat in the field, by far, if the Democratic Party wants to try and compete in the next election. Anyone with a “D” next to their name will not have an easy time in this state but Sheheen has the skills to pull this off.
By nice work sic on September 17th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
That post was completely useless. You are very afraid of the threat Vincent poses to the GOP. Very, very afraid. I am actually surprised (yet amused) that the criticism against Mr. Sheheen is a grammatical error…that he didn’t even make. And while you’re hating on Kershaw…they voted 60-40 for McCain.
What.
By fitsnews on September 17th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
“nice work sic”
we do frequently have bad dreams involving vince’s accent, although we’re not sure if that qualifies us as being “very afraid of the threat” he poses.
-FITS
p.s. – we f*cking hate Republicans, in case you haven’t picked up on it.
By nice work sic on September 17th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
good work on today’s tuneage though! my favorite thing about this site.
By gabe on September 17th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
What’s wrong with the grammar of the sentence you’ve quoted? It’s a bit awkward, but all of the pronouns have antecedents, and the commas off-set a parenthetical statement. Also, there’s nothing wrong with ending a sentence with “at”: http://motivatedgrammar.wordpress.com/2008/08/06/where-are-you-at/
By SC Moderate on September 17th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
I like (and typically agree with) these side-line posts…
However, one big problem with the logic of this one (IMO):
You are basically alluding to unqualified teachers as the problem with public education. When in fact, one of the biggest concerns with vouchers, especially in a state like SC (vs largest cities such as Milwaukee), is that it will lead to many startup private schools where kids are being taught by unqualified teachers… Because the fact is, SC does not have an excess of private schools to accommodate the exodus from public education- so you will get small startups.
Do you think Orangeburg Prep is just going to open its doors to every kid who it unhappy with their public school? In other rural areas trying vouchers, there have been small start-ups (often at churches) with unqualified teachers and curriculum. (Since the goal of the private sector is to turn a profit… cost cutting could easily take precedent over looking out of the educational good of the students).
And my bet is, the same percentage (and probably a higher %) of teachers in these small private schools have a habit of ending their sentences with prepositions as well.
I know its trendy to say Government is all bad, all the time. (Under such thinking, why not try competition with private military…wait I think we have tried that one a bit… and weren’t they great a being fiscally responsible). At some point we need to get back to a balanced look at reality and realize that in some areas, there is a role for government. And look for creative ways to improve public education itself, rather than screaming- competition is the answer.
By Do What? on September 17th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Wait, so we want someone who came from our dead last terrible public school system to lead our already disembattled state? Does anyone else see the continuing problem here? Obviously state education has not only had an effect to our “young” but isn’t our old that was educated as well? and Camden does not have the best schools….
By OET on September 17th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
“fitsnews”
I guess you were brought up thinking it was okay to write, “Well, assuming you think the endorsement of those responsible for our state’s ‘epic academic fail’ is something to be proud of.” Your writing contains the same grammatical mishap for which you fault Bauer.
By Groundball on September 17th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
By the time this one’s over, he may not look so bad to a lot of us. With everyone in the GOP getting down and dirty, political advisors taking every opportunity to cut the opponent’s ass and credibility, the current Gov being run out on a rail by his own party rather than doing the right thing, on and on and on and on, people may be sick of the faces and the names in 14 months.
By fitsnews on September 17th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
OET-
Yeah but we’re not the friggin’ teacher of the year, dude.
-FITS
By John on September 17th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
GUYS –
I AM AN AFRICAN AMERICAN DEMOCRATC. I WILL NOT BE VOTING FOR JIM REX IF MY LIFE DEPENDED ON IT. HE AHS NOT DONE ONE THING FOR THE PEOPLE OF SC IN EDCUATION. HE LIED ABOUT PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE AND COMPLETELY BACKED AWAY FROM HIS COMMITMENT TO CHARTER SCHOOLS. I KNOW BLACKS WHO ARE READY TO KILL THIS CAMPAIGN AND I AM JOINING THEM!!!
By Student Talk on September 17th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
Thank you for sharing this information..
By Ned on September 17th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
-FITS
If you’re going to criticize the “friggin’ teacher of the year” and the Lt. Governor for using improper grammar, you should use proper grammar in the criticism at the very least.
By baker on September 18th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
I’ll give Will this much…..he’s pretty darn good with the English language.
He can string some words together.
By Freddie Guy on September 18th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
baker:
Trizzle.
Fred