A for Exceptable

Though imperfect, the SAT measures verbal and mathematical aptitude. So do the literacy surveys compiled by the Department of Education that display the same downward spiral in grammatical and computational ability.

And now, some of the professors who have to work with students saddled with this inadequate training are starting to speak out more frequently. “I came in on the first wave of spell-check utilities,’ English professor Ben Yagoda writes in The Chronicle of Higher Education. “They lull students and others into a false sense of security, leaving homonyms or near homonyms of the intended word unmarked.”

“Cataloging this kind of mistake can be great sport; I treasure the article about a board-of-education meeting that mentioned the ‘Super Attendant of Schools,’ and the one on drug problems that referred to a ‘heroine attic.’”