The School Board Is Making Our Heads Explode

Last Updated on: 21st April 2015, 03:39 pm

Ray Mitchell said last week that he was going to send the Guelph Mercury a nice happy letter asking what figures of speech it would be safe to use etc. I haven’t seen his letter, but I did come across this beautiful piece. I’m officially a fan of Francis Prescott.

I experienced a mixed reaction after reading about Ray Mitchell’s poor treatment at the hands of the Upper Grand District School Board.

On the one hand I found spokesperson Maggie McFadzen’s claim that Ray’s comments had a “violent overtone” to be hysterically funny. At the same time the very thing that made them funny — McFadzen’s apparent inability to understand metaphor — caused me great anxiety.

McFadzen represents the public school system in Guelph and the surrounding area. One of the core tasks of the school system is to teach literacy to our children. Literacy extends well beyond the basic ABC’s and includes a concept called prose literacy. The distinction between what is meant literally and what is meant metaphorically is a basic tenant of prose literacy.

If our school board’s own public relations person has not mastered such a basic concept, how can we expect our children to grow up and be functioning members of society? When I have kids, I think I’ll home-school them.

Francis Prescott

Guelph

Yea! We need more of these.

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