the the

There was a band named The The. They weren't bad, I think they even had a hit single.

During my long stretch of unemployment (Quit, Fired, Layed Off) in 2000, I applied to a business magazine near Wall Street. They were very high in the air, like fiftieth floor of a tall building, with a great view and huge windows. I didn't like the job, but I liked the location, which is a real factor in my job hunt. It was for a Copy Editor position. I had a great interview, they actually seemed to like me. I wore my best, darkest grey suit.

In my thank you letter I said: "I want to thank you for the the opportunity to speak with you about the position." Did you catch the error?, because I sure didn't. I got a letter back that day saying they couldn't hire me because I clearly hadn't proofread  my e-mail. They were right, I felt really stupid.

I just got an e-mail from a former student asking for a letter of recommendation. I was her English teacher. I can't claim to have even attempted to make my students perfect writers, but this letter was rife with errors. It brought back a whole flood of terrible memories, grading papers and growing more and more depressed about the state of education.

The girl was not the worst writer I had, she wasn't even that bad, probably in the top third of her class. In class, she was very quiet, occasionally bitchy and combative, like all teenagers, but not without justification. Kind of an underrated student, in fact. Not the sort of person I'd spontaneously say great things about, but she never offended me in the slightest. There were students I taught about whom I would spontaneously say great things, just not this one.

I guess I'm obligated to write the recommendation, even though I don't want to. Not out of laziness, it just depresses me to attach my name as her English teacher, when even by her senior year, she can't write a flawless letter. She can't write a flawless sentence. She's not applying to Harvard, she's applying to some small local schools. Am I holding her to a higher standard than I would expect of myself? I'm sure there are typos even in this blog, and maybe even some outright errors.

What would you do? How hard would you sell her?