🚀 go-pugleaf

Personally, I wouldn't use a math tutor that violated basic grammar,
particularly if his reason for doing so were to be politically correct. I
don't want my kids picking up either bad grammar or morally bankrupt
politics from some math tutor. It is not sexist to use proper English.
Angonizing over his/her and he/she trivializes real gender issues and
harms women more than the use of alledgedly sexist pronouns (at least that
is what my wife tells me). Ironically, it is all men arguing about this
trivia. There are far more important concerns such as educators actively
discouraging women from entering technical fields.

In article <snowe.819655349@rain.org>, snowe@rain.org (Nick Halloway) wrote:

> Robert W Morgan <bobmorga@fs.cei.net> writes:
> 
> >And might I suggest an English tutor for you, sir?  Your repeated gross 
> >violation of singular/plural tense rules is apalling.  You cannot help a 
> >"student" (one person) achieve "their" (two or more people) goals.
> 
> a) Correcting people's spelling or grammar is not good netiquette

Posting ads in news groups is improper, except for those specifically 
set up for ads. If Mr. Taylor kept his ads in appropriate news groups, no
one would have flamed him. Unfortunately, he chose to cross-post his ad to
15 news groups of which only a handful were appropriate. Flaming those who
place ads inappropriately is an accepted practice.

> b) His grammar has nothing to do with his ability to teach math

His grammar has to do with his general education, which is paramount in 
selecting a tutor. Why have a math tutor that undermines learning proper
English?

> c) Many people, me as well as others, personally favor "their" as a
> casual pronoun which doesn't imply a gender.  The grammatically
> correct thing might be to say "his" or "his or her".  But the first
> is sexist, and to me the implicit assumption that the student is
> male is offensive.  The second is rather clumsy.  I hope that 
> "their" does get accepted as proper grammar, through general
> usage.  That *is* the way language changes, you know -- "rules"
> of grammar are not laid down by emperors, they are just general
> usage, formalized.  
> 
> I prefer a somewhat ungrammatical use of "their" to spelling flames,
> by far.

He could have wrote any of the following to be both politically and
grammatically correct:

   I can and will help your student achieve his or her goal.
   I can and will help your students achieve their goals.

There is no reason to butcher the language or trivialize hurdles facing women.
-- 
Kip Haggerty

Bill Clinton has been such a horrible President that I'm voting for the Republican nominee, even if he is Pee Wee Herman!