An English Teacher Corrected & Returned A White House Letter & It's A+ Shade
You might be thinking that there's no way the ultimate shade can come from a lesson in grammar, but then you'd be wrong. This White House letter corrected and returned by an English teacher is A+ shade. Leave it to a teacher to school the president.
On May 3, Yvonne Mason, a retired English teacher in Atlanta, Georgia, received a letter from the White House thanking her for her input on school safety — a letter that appeared to be full of errors. Mason, although retired, wasn't out of "grading paper mode," and couldn't help but pull out her purple grading pen and correct the letter, she told The New York Times.
Elite Daily reached out to the White House for comment on the letter, but has not recieved a response at time of publication.
Mason posted a photo to her Facebook on May 14 of the corrected letter, captioned "Got a letter from Mr. Trump. Will be returning it tomorrow." The White House letter was covered with highlights and editing marks. At the top she wrote, "Have you all tried style and grammar check?" Also scrawled across the top, Mason reminded the White House that "Federal is only capitalized when used as part of a proper noun."
The rest is full of highlights and markings pointing out where the letter fails the grammar test, but my favorite part of Mason's "grading" comes at the very end. The letter reads,
Thank you again for writing. As President one of my top priorities is the safety of America's youth, who are the future leaders of our great Nation.
After changing the "P" in "President" to lowercase, Mason circled the "N" in "Nation" and just wrote "OMG this is wrong!" Which is the best thing an English teacher has ever written on a student's paper, let alone on a letter from President of the United States of America Donald Trump.
According to The New York Times, though, the federal government actually has their own style guide that calls for things like the capitilization of "Nation" and "Federal." But capitalization aside, Mason explained to The New York Times that the letter was just so poorly written that she had to fix it, and as a teacher she believes that people should perform to the best of their abilities. "It was a poorly worded missive," she said. "Poor writing is not something I abide. If someone is capable of doing better, then they should do better."
I hope Trump (or, let's be honest, whoever penned the letter) have their marble notebooks out and are ready to learn something.
But, whether or not the style choices were legit, Mason ultimately just felt that the real letdown was that the letter didn't address any of the concerns expressed in her original letter to the president.
Mason first wrote to Trump to ask that he pay a visit to all of the families who lost someone in the February 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. After the shooting, Trump promised to reach out to all of the victim's families. However, as of May 8, seven of the 17 families who had lost a loved one said they still hadn't heard from the president. “I had written to them in anger, to tell you the truth,” Mason told the Times. “I thought he owed it to these grieving families.”
The return letter from the White House, however, made no mention of the families of the victims. Instead, it listed a series of actions taken post-Parkland. The letter talked about White House listening sessions aimed at "improving both school and community safety," and mentioned the STOP School Violence Act of 2018, a bill focused on stopping school threats but does not say anything about gun control. It came off as more of a cookie-cutter response to any inquiry about gun violence in schools than a personal letter to Mason addressing her thoughts and concerns.
So of course Mason was upset that her point wasn't addressed, but there’s always tomorrow. Seriously. According to The New York Times, Mason made a New Year's resolution to send a postcard to the president every single day, and she has done so since January 1.
Honestly, out of all the shade I've seen online, this is by far my favorite. Not only is it on point and hilarious, but Mason also set a great example for her former students and the rest of the world: keep making your voice heard. Also, pay attention to your grammar, folks.
