A retired high school English teacher says a letter she received from President Trump would have barely earned passing marks, so she corrected the letter and sent it back to the White House.
Yvonne Mason, an Atlanta resident who retired last year after teaching middle and high school students in South Carolina for 17 years, corrected grammatical mistakes in the letter bearing Trump’s signature, including 11 instances of improper capitalization of words like “president” and “state.”
“If it had been written in middle school, I’d give it a C or C-plus,” Mason told South Carolina’s Greenville News. “If it had been written in high school, I’d give it a D.”
She did not attach a letter grade to the letter she sent back to the White House.
Mason acknowledges the letter was likely written by a staffer. She received it after penning a letter requesting that Trump meet individually with the families who lost loved ones in the Feb. 14 high school shooting in Parkland, Fla.
“When you get letters from the highest level of government, you expect them to be at least mechanically correct,” she told the newspaper.
“It’s stylistically appalling,” she added, comparing Trump’s writing to the “exquisite” letters she’s received from South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham‘s (R) office.
The teacher said the White House response did not address her request specifically.
Trump previously held a “listening session” with Parkland community members and the victims’ parents to discuss the prevention of school shootings and gun violence.
“If it had been written in middle school, I’d give it a C or C-plus,” Mason told South Carolina’s Greenville News. “If it had been written in high school, I’d give it a D.”
Hellooooooooooo….
HE WASN’T (S)ELECTED FOR HIS BRAINS!!!!!
He’s a bankruptcy specialist.
Why do they keep lying to us about his 150 IQ?
Ridiculous. This dude is dumb as a box of rocks.
Mark I am thrilled you posted this since other websites that posted this would not accept comments (unless you had Facebook, of course!)….
I fully support the teacher here! How can I not being a former math/English teacher and home schooling mother that demanded proper grammar and spelling? How could I not being self-published author (see ads on side for my books)? ANYONE who cares about the English language (or any language with language rules) should support this teacher, and give Comacho, er, Trump, a D! Or an F, for that matter! If you’re going to “give us your word” (paraphrasing quote from Idiocracy), make sure your “word” follows the rules of the language!
For instance, one capitalizes “P” in president if one names the president…for instance, President Trump said… or whatever. but you leave the “p” in president small if as the letter says, “As president…” and same for “state”…”state” if you are talking about states in general, but capitalize State if you are naming a state (for instance, State of Texas…even if you think it should be “Republic of Texas” 😉 )
Actually, the letter from what I can read isn’t that bad. Which makes me think Trump didn’t write it! If he did, the grammar and spelling would no doubt be worse!
I’m with you, DL., and I probably would have done the same thing if the White House sent me a grammatically incorrect letter.
I was forced into the same school system, completely against my will, and couldn’t avoid learning that stuff, so there’s no excuse for an American not knowing the language.
I can understand laymen forgetting a lot of the intricacies and details, but a White House staffer should be expected to turn out a perfect specimen of English communication.