I'm glad he at least admits he can't compose an English sentence. (Does this imply that he can compose a sentence in some other language?)

If you saw Sunday's Free Press that shown Robert Bobb the emergency financial manager for Detroit Public Schools, move Mark Twain to Boynton which have three times the number seats then students and was one of the reason's he gave for closing school to many empty seats.

Ugh. What is he saying? If I saw the emergency finance manager in the Sunday paper, I should move Mark Twain (I assume this is the name of a school, and that I shouldn't exhume Samuel Clemens' remains) to Boyton, which has an excessive number of seats.

So, if I didn't happen to see this manager in the Sunday paper, for whatever reason, I shouldn't bother with this move. I could save myself a lot of work, then, if I just say I didn't happen to notice the manager.

Do DPS control the Foundation or outside group? If an outside group control the foundation, then what is DPS Board row with selection of is director? Our we mixing DPS and None DPS row's, and who is the watch dog?

The first sentence is asking which of two groups is being controlled by DPS. But the second sentence makes it clear that the first sentence should have been asking which of two groups is controlling the Foundation. I might have tried to figure out the rest of this, but I feel a headache coming on.

Amy:
How dare this man put himself up for a position of responsibility in the schools, and how dare ANYONE vote for him?
- - - - - - - - - - -
The other board members can't read.
They elected him leader of the board by marking X where he told them...

People get the government they deserve.
At every level.

No, it doesn't matter whether they can actually read and write, as long as they can DREAM. You know, instead of going to work today, maybe I'll just sit around in my jammies and dream. Better yet, I'll dream while taking a nice, long afternoon nap. I'll let you all know how long that keeps the lights on and food in the fridge.

This guy's a school board leader?? How the hell did he get that position? Who'd he bribe?

Flynne - he's a product of the public school system, and a perfect example of the ultimate goal of the whole enterprise of government schools.

He's completely useless except as a tool for the government to use in further concentrating its own power.

Keep the people stupid, and they'll never revolt.

Oh good LORD. That is some horrendous writing right there.

The dumbass should learn to lead by (good) example, like Amy said. Go get some help with your spelling and grammar, dude. You're not doing anyone any favors by perpetuating the stupid.

Stop dogging him, yo. Maybe he went to one of those matchbook-cover colleges. It's probably not that uncommon. "If U can draw Bambi U can admnstrte the Louver".

Reading the samples, I suspect the guy possibly does know grammar and spelling; he just needs to proofread his emails.

The Advice Goddess does know that spelling and grammar flames are *so* 1990s, don't you?

Oops -- I read his emails more carefully. Please disregard my previous comment: Proofreading won't help -- this man clearly has dyslexia.

I believe mocking people with learning disorders also went out with the 90s.

"How dare this man put himself up for a position of responsibility in the schools, and how dare ANYONE vote for him?"

Laura Berman's column answers that question for you. In the words of a Detroit parent: "His job, though, is to represent the community. His lack of writing skills is prevalent in the community." Yes, people like this really do get the government they deserve.

>>I believe mocking people with learning disorders also went out with the 90s.

Richard Masoner,

You seem to be missing what IS admirable about people with dyslexia who are in a job requiring written communication.

It's when their attitude is: I deal with my problem in this area so you don't have to.

Dude I have dyslexia, trust me on this - that guy doesnt have it.

Case in point, a dyslexic doesnt spell the word "ARE" as "Our" he'd spell it aer or era.

@Jody -- My wife would be one of those people (it's how I recognized Matthis's disability -- he writes just like my wife does). She recently completely her M.S. in clinical psychology.

Written communication is an essential part of her job and she requires some accommodation to communicate effectively. This accommodation is in the form of voice recorders and some computer technology.

She works very hard at what she does, but transcribing notes takes significantly longer for her than it does for other people. Because of this, some older colleagues refuse to work with her and tell her she's essentially too stupid to work in a clinical setting, so suggestions that dyslexic individuals are unfit for public service are a slap in the face to those who rise up in spite of their disabilities.

Bah! "completely" -> "completed" in my first paragraph!

@lujlp - there are different types of dyslexia.

Auster's First Law of Majority-Minority Relations in Liberal Society: The worse any designated minority or alien group behaves in a liberal society, the bigger become the lies of Political Correctess in covering up for that group.

It's just a disability! He's probably otherwise not only qualified but also BRILLIANT!

Richard,
I totally accept that overcoming your brain's refusal to perceive letter (and word) order as most people do IS a challenge for professionals. I get that.

One of the most prolific & highly paid Times UK journalists - A. A. Gill - is dyslexic.

He, too, cannot casually file his mammoth feature essays & columns & reviews & opeds (the guy is unstoppable!) without great extra effort.

But he accepts the challenge (and after years of reading him, I've only seen him once refer at length to coping with his moderate-to-severe dyslexia) because otherwise he can't do his job.

(And there are tons of underemployed hacks who would love to steal that job too!)

I and 3 of my children are profoundly dyslexic. You wouldn't believe how long I take to post on this blog. This guy may have dyslexia but he really needs to make an effort to communicate. There are programs out there to help and on his government salary he should be able to afford one..

Lujip.. Go to bright solutions.org or

http://www.dys-add.com/

and watch the videos. They are long but they explain everything about how the dyslexic mind works. Really informative.

You all aught to see me when I get in a heated debate, I'll occasionally start swaping the words in sentances while I'm talking.

I rembemer once I was reading off a phone number to my mother. I reversed the first three and transposed the last four like so.
It read 123 45 67, but I read it off as 321 67 45.

As she repeated it back to me I realized it what I had done wrong, and slowly started to read it back correctly. Funnily enough, as she is dyslexic as well, as she was reapeating my bad string of numbers she had entered it into the phone in the correct order.

There's really no excuse for incoherency. Even if this guy is dyslexic, his writing goes way beyond simple letter/word swapping. Awful syntax, bad punctuation, and lack of subject/verb agreement are not something he should be proud of. If he wishes to represent his district, he should be telling the kids, "Yes, I have trouble with basic spelling and grammar, but I work very hard to correct it in my writing." His attitude reminds me of people (whom I think have been mentioned by a poster on this site before) who seem almost proud of their inability to do basic math. You know, the people who can't add two numbers in their heads and then smugly say something like, "I just have no head for numbers," as if the people who do are pitiable. Having worked behind a cash register, I have been on the receiving end of that one before. Anyway, I'm with Amy and the others here. Who the hell thought it was a good idea for this guy to be in charge of children's education?

Lujip,

When I get stressed, I do similar things. Fortunately I have to good sense to put what I am thinking through a word processor before I sign and send it.. Scary thing is when your are trying to read a book and instead of seeing words your mind tries to make pictures out of all those little lines. I call it going Warshack.

He has a degree from Wayne State. He's been a substitute teacher and run a non-profit. In short, he's been right up front at the public trough for all of his adult life.

Read the comments at the original story.

Computers have had interactive spell-check for 15 years. I'm sure he has one. It would be to his benefit to use it.

This guy is an example of why we lag behind other countries in education. Bad teachers and bad administration. As a parent who has recently put two kids through the K-12 system, I can tell you many horror stories, but please read this article about bad teachers and how we must start fighting the unions to get rid of them:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/234590/page/1

Scary thing is when your are trying to read a book and instead of seeing words your mind tries to make pictures out of all those little lines. I call it going Warshack.

I am also dyslexic. I have good days and bad days. On my worst days words fall off the page, or I cannot translate them into meaning. I also get the reverse, where I am thinking of something, can see the picture, but cannot come up with the words for it. I have a BS in Computers and a Master's in Accounting and Finance. It just took persistence.

If this man has a learning disability, I empathize, but that doesn't give him the right to foist that upon everyone else. Words are meant to communicate ideas. The occasional error that doesn't muddy the general idea of the communication is acceptable, however when one cannot determine the idea from writing he might as well just wipe his ass with my time and effort.

-Julie

Slightly OT, but here's what I posted elsewhere, last month:

Why do so many parents understand that "you are what you eat" but not "you are what you do"? In other words, just because kids are deprived of
escapist/passive "screen time" in school (and that is less and less the case these days, what with TV taking over for teachers so often),
that is NO reason to let kids have a 20-hour MINIMUM per week, at home, of videogames / texting / TV / Internet!

To put it another way,

1) you wouldn't let your kids be on a home diet that was 80% fat and sugar on the grounds that they don't get to indulge themselves like
that during the school lunch, so why let them have the equivalent in anti-intellectual activities?

2) Elementary school kids, on average, probably have FEWER than 30 hours a week of leisure time when you subtract (from 168 hours) the time needed for eating, sleeping, school, homework, transportation, chores, and maybe one extracurricular activity.

3) So, doesn't it stand to reason that they should be spending at least 20 hours or more of that time on essential activities such as outdoor exercise, face-to-face socializing, creative play, and...oh yes....READING? (Keep in mind, too, that even reading is time spent sitting down, so you need to exercise all the more!)

4) Allowing kids to have visual electronics in their bedrooms clearly doesn't help them to maintain the quota from point 3. Dr. Spock (whom
I consider to be somewhat unfairly maligned) naively wrote, in "Baby and Child Care," that it IS OK for kids to have a TV in the bedroom,
but he changed his mind....in the mid-late 1960s. All I wonder is, what took him so long to smarten up? However, I don't remember his ever speaking AGAINST the practice, unfortunately.

Jim Trelease, the author of "The Read-Aloud Handbook," told of how, in the 1970s, his kids started complaining about the family evening read-
aloud time because "it takes away too much time from the TV." Taking a tip from another family, he and his wife decided there would only be
TV watching on weekends from then on. The kids cried every night for MONTHS. But it was worth it. Their grades shot up, as did their literacy skills; family fights plunged, etc. etc.

Seems to me the only way to make sure that the time for essential activities doesn't get wiped out is to enforce the same rule while the
kids are young.

Trelease quoted Paul Copperman from his book, "The Literacy Hoax": "Consider what a child misses during the 15,000 hours (from birth to
age 17) he spends in front of the TV screen. He is not working in the garage with his father, or in the garden with his mother. He is not doing homework, or reading, or collecting stamps. He is not cleaning his room, washing the supper dishes or cutting the lawn. He is not listening to a discussion about community politics among his parents and their friends. He is not playing baseball or going fishing or painting pictures. Exactly what does television offer that is so
valuable it can replace these activities that transform an impulsive, self-absorbed child into a critically-thinking adult?"

P.S. Rumor has it that employers are becoming more and more desperate for workers both willing and able to deal well with clients on the phone and/or in person - and too many young people aren't willing or able because they're used to texting more than anything else.