Inside my head, I have never felt myself to be a day over nineteen years old, but in fact I am a walking antique. In consequence, I can see everything that has gone wrong with education since it was ruined in my behalf. I hope I am not smug: I am crushed by my ignorance, so great I cannot even weigh it, much less comprehend it. I know how much better education was 50 years before I hit the books – but I know how much worse it is now.

Lately I am beswarmed, it would seem, by trivial, obvious Spelling Errors. It is a given that most people younger than me can’t read to any profit. The ability to spell properly is sustained by reading lots and lots of properly-spelled text. The implication would be that, not only can paid writers not spell, they don’t read very much, either. And these same facts must also be true of their editors, who are literally paid to know better.

My solution would be Latin, of course. No one who can decline in linguam Latinam can confuse affect for effect – nor any a-, ad- (accusative) words for similarly-spelled e-, ex- (ablative) forms. Attic Greek will work, too, to make you exacting and to train your memory. But spelling is grammar in Latin, so if you get it wrong, you get everything wrong.

Looking for an easier answer: Mark down, consistently, for spelling errors – in school but more importantly at work. At a minimum, they are indicia of carelessness, and Carelessness Breeds Catastrophe.

In other news:

Redfin.com: Housing Market Update: One-Third of Homes Find Buyers Within a Week.

CNBC: Foreclosures are surging now that Covid mortgage bailouts are ending, but they’re still at low levels.

Andrea Widburg: Thanks to Biden’s policies, prepare for a cold, expensive winter.

Kyle Becker: Internal Capitol Police Documents on Ashli Babbitt Shooting Released: ‘No Good Reason for Shooting,’ Judicial Watch President Says.

American Thinker: The silver lining in the Democrats’ assault on kids in the public schools.