Red faces at the Oregon Education Association: Why can't teacher advocates spell education? | OregonLive.com

Red faces at the Oregon Education Association: Why can't teacher advocates spell education? | OregonLive.com

Red faces at the Oregon Education Association: Why can't teacher advocates spell education?

By Betsy Hammond, The Oregonian

April 16, 2010, 3:05PM

Each month, Consumer Reports magazine collects some of the most embarrassing and hilarious misspellings, typos and misuses of English from around the country, such as the roofing company that brags it "specializes in rip-offs."

This month, our own teachers union, the Oregon Education Association, topped the consumer magazine's list of "goofs, glitches and gotchas."

It seems that, on one of its checking accounts and in two different ways, employees at the Oregon teachers group misspelled "education." You have to see it for yourself.

Which is funnier? The top of the check, where the group's name is listed in bold as the "Oregon Educaiton Association," or the bottom of the check, near the signature line, where the group is misspelled "Oregon Educaton Association?"

Or maybe none of it is funny. Are Oregon's teachers raising a generation that can't spell, at least without spell check?

Becca Uherbelau, spokeswoman for the OEA (and a woman who's endured her share of misspellings, what with her Palauan last name), says Oregon teachers and their association representatives do know how to spell; they're just subject to an occasional slip-up like the rest of us.

She says this particular mistake was made by the union's accounting