My sister told me that her daughter had come home from school with a spelling list to be learnt. On the list was the word “platman”. She had never heard or read the word. I sms’d back saying, “It’s more valuable than gold,” you know, to keep the mood light.
She answered that that’d been her reaction, as it was under the word “quartz” and the kids were learning about gold.
I reasoned that I could see how this could happen. Someone just learning their running-writing could run the “i” a little too close to the “n” and it accidentally becomes an “m”. Don’t finish the “a” properly and you’ve got a “u”. I couldn’t explain the final “n”.
She agreed that would be a suitable explanation, if it wasn’t a printed list from the teacher.
I concluded that she was in trouble.
With that little communication fresh in my mind, I was listening to teachers calling into JJJ radio, to talk about homework projects.
One said that she didn’t really mind what the content was, as long as it was pretty. If it was pretty it was better than having all those boring words.
Another admitted that she was an English teacher and that she had always been interested in, “word stuff.”
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