Letter: Garcia needs to polish English

Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2000 | 9:32 a.m.

I am disappointed that a man of his alleged education, serving as Clark County's top educator, would use a singular subject with a plural pronoun. I quote, "... someone who doesn't respect themselves or any others." And the utterance that followed, "Everybody has them," flunks elementary English as vague and unclear even in the context of the words he spoke.

Nitpicking? I don't think so. We should expect him to make better choices of words and to use the words properly. A mind trained to communicate properly and effectively doesn't make these mistakes, especially in a public forum.

In a school district struggling to produce proficiency, Garcia should serve as a stellar example. He flunked this time out. I say give him detention, an English language handbook and chalk to write a hundred times: "I will never use the N-word again."

Education, after all, is a measure of a man. And temperance is practically a virtue.

SUSAN HUFF

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