Giving a Tit for Tat About Typos

Summary

A former high school teacher reflects on the humorous and educational aspects of typos in student writing, particularly an incident involving a student's article that unintentionally included a reference to "tits" instead of "iTouches."

Abstract

The article "Giving a Tit for Tat About Typos" recounts the author's experiences with typos during their teaching career, emphasizing that such mistakes can lead to laughter and valuable lessons rather than just criticism. The author shares an anecdote where a student's report on the introduction of iTouches in schools mistakenly referenced "tits," causing amusement among the class and staff. Despite the error, the author argues that the incident was an innocent mistake and highlights the importance of understanding the limitations of spell-check technology. The piece concludes with the revelation that the student involved is now pursuing a career in teaching English, with the hope that the incident will positively influence her approach to education.

Opinions

The author believes that typos can be a source of humor and learning, rather than just a reason to penalize students.
They suggest that correcting language errors should not always involve shaming the student.
The author admits to finding the typo in the student's article amusing and shares this sentiment with others, indicating a light-hearted approach to such mistakes.
There is a hint of nostalgia and pride in the author's voice when discussing the former student's aspiration to become an English teacher.
The author implies that technology, specifically spell-check, is not infallible and should not replace careful proofreading.

The struggle for form and fashion.

Over the course of a lengthy career, I wrestled for a good long while with mistakes — mine, those of professional reporters I worked with, the inelegant, on occasion, prose of high school students.

The Struggle Bus wasn’t always on time when it came to typos, but it made frequent stops. Back in the day one of my students, penning a ponderous opus on the wonders of technology, got a first-class ticket when she failed to take the spell-check exit and included a reference more at home in the sex education curriculum than in high school journalism.

It was an udderly innocent mistake.

As her former teacher and student newspaper adviser, I would like to argue that sometimes discovering the errors of one’s ways doesn’t always involve shaming and marking a student down for less-than-precise language skills. Typos can, in fact, lead to a great deal of mirth and merriment. And quite a few guffaws, to boot.

A student reporter’s fairly tame, by-the-book, and wonderfully safe coverage produced a snortful of snickering in Room 215 one day.

Typos are often cause for tittering.

“Next year in our school district,” the cherub wrote, “one elementary school, one middle school and one high school will have the opportunity to experiment with one of tits best possible advances in the school system. iTouches will be lent to select students for daily use in school.”

Between you, me and Grammarly, I wished I’d corrected her verb usage (“lent” should have been been “loaned”) and hadn’t failed to notice the inclusion of an inadvertent reference to mammary glands in this otherwise pro forma, stodgy report.

“The iTouch would revolutionize school,” the young woman posited in her article. Well, of course it would. Especially if the tits, mentioned above, are involved. With the iTouches, you see.

Seriously? The mistake wasn’t that bodacious.

There I go again. I’ve been accused, on occasion, of not being “serious” enough. But when I had to defend the usage of a physical attribute in the high school newspaper, I blamed technology. Spell-check just ain’t what it used to be.

In my defense, I chose not to mention to my superiors the further silly inferences so many of us — yes, fellow teachers and most definitely students — drew from this important account of the school district and evolving technology. And about the iTouches and tits, and all.

Those of us who found something funny in the piece (Yes, I just went there) are still snickering. And snorting. With a tasteful guffaw, as well.

The deck is certainly stacked in her favor.

And the story gets better. This student, you see, is now matriculating in the Dark Arts of Teaching. In particular, she wants to become a pedagogue of the English Language. Of the high school variety.

She’ll be great! And I sincerely hope our long ago extended classroom tête-à-tête about, you know, that, informs her career. Immensely.