When you graduate from Binford Middle School in Richmond, Virginia, you receive a certificate signed by the teacher and principal and decorated with an apple, the school mascot and a picture of...Karl Marx?Binford Principal Juanita Nicholson said yesterday that she had not known the photo was of Marx or the reason for its use. She agreed it was an odd choice. Nicholson said one of the teachers on a committee apparently had done it. "I'm not sure . . . she even knew who it was."
Turns out she didn't.
Richmond schools spokeswoman Felicia Cosby called last night to explain: "She really thought she was capturing clip art representing Frederick Douglass. She did a search to pull up Frederick Douglass and this is what came up . . . with the beard and the hair..."
...The teacher, the school and the school system "apologize profusely if this image offended parents and children alike," Cosby said.
Yes, well; that should be "if this image offended parents or children" but, what's a little grammatical goof like that compared to mistaking an heroic African-American orator for the Father of Communism?
So, Ms. Cosby, what about the apology to the taxpayers who have provided huge amounts of money to the school district and their NEA teachers, hoping that the levels of educational diligence and expertise would be much higher than what this example reveals?
