Am I being pedantic? As architect Mies van der Rohe often said, “God dwells in the details.” One needn’t be religious to understand the concept. There is a certain satisfaction and pride that can only be attained by doing a job correctly, down to the last minute detail. Educators must set an example. Even if they never achieve it, perfection should be their goal, in order that students may have an benchmark against which to measure their own performance.

I read quite a few blogs every day. No one expects proper writing in a blog. It is an informal genre. Yet, almost without exception, all of those bloggers are better writers than Mr. Bynum has demonstrated himself to be. People who could benefit from a remedial writing course should not, in my opinion, be educators, for the same reason that people with poor eye-hand coordination should not be airline pilots. The skill is too vital, and the consequences of failure are too dire.

Am I nit-picking? Perhaps. Look at the e-mail trail, and the bitter complaints about how the “Star Student” story didn’t make the front page. Now read issue 3 of the newspaper, and notice what’s at the top of the sidebar. It’s a headline about the “Star Student”, complete with a photograph and a page number for the story. It’s even above the fold. The outrage of Bynum and Hosey was based solely on the placement of the story’s full text. That is (if you will excuse an education-related pun) a textbook example of nit-picking.

Lois, I guess I qualify as a pedant. When we’re talking about educators, though, I think the term “pedantic” ceases to apply. When it comes to educating our children, details matter!

Omally, you caught one I missed! That sentence was already out of the running anyway, though, so the grade stands.

Thanks for the comments, everyone!