[Note to the humor-impaired: This post is all tongue-in-cheek.]
We just got the official District 150 school calendar. Now I know we haven’t had “Christmas Vacation” for a long time now. I understand the religious sensitivities that led to changing it to “Winter Vacation.”
Nevertheless, the calendar has nearly every conceivable religious and non-religious observance listed on it. There’s “Islamic Ramadan” (Aug. 11), “Jewish Rosh Hashanah” (Sept. 9), “Patriot Day” (Sept. 11), “Leif Erickson Day” (Oct. 9), “All Saints’ Day” (Nov. 1), “Groundhog Day” (Feb. 2), “Chinese New Year” (Feb. 3), and even “Dr. Suess Birthday” (Mar. 2). “Palm Sunday” and “Easter” (Apr. 17 & 24) are listed, as well as “Jewish Pesach” (Apr. 19-25).
But what holiday is printed on December 25? “National Children’s Day.”
National Children’s Day?
What’s even more strange is that this particular holiday is printed twice on the calendar — once on Dec. 25, and once on Oct. 8. Any holiday that’s celebrated twice a year must be something special. So I Googled “National Children’s Day” to find out more about it. It has its own official site, naturally: http://www.nationalchildrensday.us/. It even has an official song (“I Love Being a Kid” by a guy who calls himself “Mr. Nicky”). However, the site says it’s celebrated on the second Sunday in June. (I checked the school calendar to see if perhaps “Christmas” got printed on June 12. Nope.) So, District 150 put this holiday on their calendar twice and were wrong both times?
I had to investigate further, so I checked out Wikipedia. (I know Wikipedia is reliable because I looked up “Reliability of Wikipedia” on Wikipedia, and it said it was reliable.) The Children’s Day entry explained that this holiday “is celebrated on various days in many places around the world, in particular to honor children.” I’m glad they added that last part, because I was wondering who, in particular, was being honored on Children’s Day. It appears the holiday was aptly named. “Major global variants include an International Children’s Day on June 1 as adopted in the former Communist bloc, and a Universal Children’s Day on November 20, by United Nations recommendation.” (This was established during the height of the Cold War, so the adjectival escalation should come as no shock; I’m surprised Khrushchev didn’t counter with a Multiversal Children’s Day.) So far, still no Oct. 8 or Dec. 25. But wait: “Many nations declare days for children on other dates.”
Next, all the countries are listed with their various dates for celebrating Children’s Day. Searching through them, I did discover that Children’s Day is celebrated on Oct. 8 in one country: Iran. Well, the U.S. did celebrate Children’s Day on Oct. 8 one year. “Children’s Day was proclaimed by President Bill Clinton to be held on October 8, 2000.” However the next year, in a show of partisan eye-poking, newly-elected President Bush officially moved it to the first Sunday in June. My guess is he thought the kids would have more fun if the could celebrate their day at the beginning of summer vacation. Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, ever the non-conformist, “issued a proclamation proclaiming the second Sunday in June as Children’s Day…” [emphasis added]. Well, that will show the federal government they can’t push our state around! We’ll just have our Children’s Day on the second Sunday of June and see if Obama tries to stop us.
Getting back to Christmas, there are some countries that celebrate Children’s Day on December 25, according to Wikipedia. They’re all in central Africa: “In Congo, Congo DR, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Chad, Central African Republic, São Tomé and Príncipe Children’s Day is celebrated on December 25 to honour all the children there.” But how many countries celebrate Christmas on December 25? Just about all of them. Even Orthodox churches that celebrate Christmas in January by the Gregorian calendar are actually celebrating on December 25 on the Julian calendar.
Finally, I decided to get an authoritative answer instead of all this Wikipedia stuff. I asked District 150 board member Laura Petelle why District 150 didn’t print Christmas on their calendar. Her answer: “I am forced to assume typo.”
Oh, sure, give the obvious answer! 🙂
Dist 150 e-mail looks good to me.
Not the same email……
I figured that would be what you would say……
I’ll take a stab at it—but there are no glaring errors but there are some.
There is some quibbling room as to whether or not the collective noun personnel should be singular or plural. I would probably go with “personnel is” instead of “personnel are” because they are being invited as a group—but a case could be made for using are. A comma after Peoria High is optional—so that isn’t an error. The same is true after hourly—the comma is optional but preferred.
1st error – The word the should go in front of Richwoods…..because “the” is modifying parking lots, not Richwoods.
2nd error – There should not be a comma after welcome—two compound verbs connected by and do not require a comma.
3rd error – There should be no comma after seeing you Monday—same reason as #2.
4th error – The wording of the if sentence is awkward—better wording would be:
If you are unsure whether or not your attendance is mandatory,….
Also, I would not capitalize district by itself—District 150, yes.
Did I miss any? The errors might not be glaring; however, three errors in such a short message could have been avoided with a good proofreader—and 150 should have one on hand at all times.
P.S.–the italics didn’t show up, so my words used as words should have been put in quotes.
Teacher–I would love to see the other e-mail. I have to admit that I definitely object to grammatical errors in messages from district personnel–this is an educational institution. That said, I have no problem with errors in personal e-mails (make them all the time myself), but if it is a formal e-mail sent to all personnel, then I find the errors more objectionable. Errors in messages that will be seen by the general public should certainly be avoided.
An email I received (as did all D150 staff) used “a” instead of “an” and “be” was used as a verb. Hope the secretary is not a “product” of D150(said tongue in cheek).
Teacher–you mean “be” as a verb in place of “am”–such as I be going? Ouch!
Sharon. yes
You grammar Nazis seriously need to get a life.
Billy. if you are sending information out to teachers and parents from the superintendents office then it SHOULD be correct.
Sharon’s critique was over the top–no disrespect intended Sharon. Grammar should be good and the e-mail that was posted here was fine. Dist 150 has much bigger problems than this.
I used to get TONS of mail from school districts, teachers, etc. The idea that 20 or 30 years ago, there would never be typos or spelling/grammar errors is simply not true.
I repeat: GET. A. LIFE.
Billy, I don’t get upset over anyone’s grammar–not journalists, not bloggers, etc., and have never criticized the errors in the PJS or on any blog. I don’t judge a person’s worth by his/her grammar mistakes. However, I do have a problem with an educational institution sending out material with errors. Especially, I expect written messages from the superintendent’s office to be grammatically correct. Remember that all of the District 150 schools are in trouble because many of its young people cannot pass the language arts part of the NCLB test. Yet many of its own administrators cannot write a sentence without making some of the same errors tested on the NCLB test. In fact, I do not expect administrators, etc., to write an error-free message. However, I do expect them to know their limitations and to ask someone to proof their work–just for the sake of the reputation of the institution they represent. The district is full of English teachers who could do that job, so there is no excuse. I truly do not know why they would produce documents with obvious errors. For instance, he 50 or so page document outlining the plans to restructure Manual contained so many errors that the content was almost unrecognizable. 150 Observor, no disrepect taken. I realize that an English teacher is going to be more aware of errors–sorry, but the invitation did not contain errors that the average person would notice–but an educational institution should not present itself as average. Billy, the teaching of the correct use of the English language was my life–I am having a hard time leaving it behind. 🙂 However, a person’s verbal delivery has to be really bad before it bothers me–but errors in writing can be avoided. I think the district should have a resident proofreader–just as the newspapers do.
Sharon, paragraph breaks please. I am sure as an ex-English teacher you are aware of those. 🙂
150 observer: I just do it to aggravate you because I know that you are always going to remind me. No, I really am careless about breaking for paragraphs on blogs–guilty of many errors on blogs. Billy, you reminded me–today there is even less excuse for these errors because of the spell and grammar check on computers. I am always amazed at how oblivious I am of some of my own errors until I see the little squiggling line under my errors.
The reason I nag you Sharon is you have interesting thoughts and they are difficult to read when there is one long run-on paragraph. Spelling mistakes do not bother me, because I make those myself in posting haste, but I sometimes skip the posts without paragraph breaks.
I wish Charlie would make posts without paragraph breaks though, if you catch my drift. 🙂
Sharon – I’m certainly not an English teacher, but I disagree with some of your language critique.
– “…(A)ll District personnel are invited…” –
“Personnel” as used by the writer is intended to be plural, and refers to the definition of personnel meaning “persons”. The plural form produces the alternative form of “All are invited” while the singular would produce “All is invited.”
– “…(E)mployees are welcome, but will not be paid…”-
According to Strunk in The Elements of Style “Place a comma before and or but introducing an independent clause.” Samples supplied are “The early records of the city have disappeared, and the story of its first years can no longer be reconstructed”, and “The situation is perilous, but there is still one chance of escape.” the explanation is “Sentences of this type, isolated from their context, may seem to be in need of rewriting. As they make complete sense when the comma is reached, the second clause has the appearance of an after-thought. Further, and, is the least specific of connectives. Used between independent clauses, it indicates only that a relation exists between them without defining that relation.”
– “We look forward to seeing you Monday, and are excited…”-
I would suggest the previous rule applies.
– You state “I would not capitalize district by itself—District 150, yes.”-
I would disagree, and argue that in the context of the sentence District is a proper noun in that it refers only to and is merely a shortened version of District 150 rather than a reference to a non-specific district.
Spikeless, I shouldn’t but I can’t resist. The case (singular or plural) of collective nouns is always open to some disagreement–that’s why I said either is OK. The rule is “When the members are acting as individuals, the collective noun is plural and requires plural verbs and pronouns.” The reverse is true when the members are doing something in union, the verb is singular. Personally, I think “personnel” in this sentence is singular–they are all invited to the same event. Sorry but your “All” test just doesn’t work because “personnel”, not “all”, is the subject of the sentence. Your test only works with a noun followed by a prepositional phrase: All of the personnel are (no choice) because “all” always plural.
Your argument about the comma is way off because there is no independent clause after the comma–only a verb phrase (with no subject). The same is true about “are excited..” that just isn’t an independent clause. All clauses have subjects. Both sentences consist of two verbs (not two clauses) connected by “and.”
You are probably right about district. I always try to avoid the problem by putting 150 after it.
Spikeless, I’m sorry, but I was/am an English teacher–I’d like to be gracious and concede that you were right or even let it go, but my sinful pride just won’t let me do that. 🙂
OK–I’m slipping a bit; I just made an error (not one that affects our original disagreement). I said that “all” is always plural–that just isn’t correct. Examples: All of the candy is gone. All of the boys are here. This rule has nothing to do with the original sentence because there was no prepositional phrase after “all.” Also, Struck made a mistake–a comma always goes inside the quotation marks..
Hilarious. I have now forgotten what this article was even about. In this day and age when so much of our writting is seen via the internet, it is probably even more important we try to do our best… “simply the best.” Everyone always has problems with some “grammar” issue and no one is perfect, but I worked in the business world for MANY years. A written document going to others, especially from the President or CEO of a company, is supposed to be as professional a possible. It is like a “first impression” whether that impression is physical or written, and it is important. Leave it at that and move on. Yes, there are PLENTY of teachers that could proofread memos, emails sent from people at the administration building (and there are quite a few former teachers working there now). It shouldn’t be that difficult to generate a fairly decent reading, grammatically correct piece of work. The problem: it requires administration to maybe admit they need “help” or teamwork and that they care and value each other… again, that just is not going on at 150. So, we should really move on to maybe trying to solve something we can. We need the paper and people that live in Peoria to get more involved, bottom line.