Photo by Shirley McShane Sillars (Phone number erased to protect privacy)

I’ve driven by this sign many times. Each time I see it I’m tempted to do one of two things. I want to grab a can of red spray paint and fix the two misspelled words, add a dash of punctuation for clarity, and get rid of the superfluous parenthesis. I also want to snap a picture of it for the English Fail blog.

Getting this picture posed a challenge. It’s painted on the side of an old building in a marginal neighborhood along a road with fast-moving traffic. Last week I devised a plan. I grabbed my camera and tried to get a drive-by shot. The first time I attempted a drive-by with my daughter at the wheel. I had a nice shot of the raindrops on my passenger window. Opportunity came when a UPS  truck driver parked in front of the building. I pulled in behind it, held up my camera and aimed. I got a nice picture of the UPS driver, who shot me an odd look. I had one more chance. What I captured is what you see above. Then I threw my camera into my purse and fled the scene.

Later, as I processed the image on my computer I thought about the bigger picture. In spite of its errors in basic English, its random use of upper and lower case letters, the sign still is understandable. Like the abbreviated, coded lexicon of today’s text-messaging world, it isn’t grammatically correct but if the reader gets it, who cares? English teachers, newspaper editors and publishing houses care. But for the rest of the world, do language skills still hold value?

I thought about how easy it is to laugh at this sign and the many others like it around the city. It’s even more entertaining to visit Web sites that poke fun of poor language skills. But laughter quickly gives way to sadness. What do these signs say about our education system and our literacy as a nation?

In order to do more than just point out what is wrong, I joined the ranks of an estimated 2,000 Detroit-area residents who will tutor Detroit Public Schools preschoolers.  I’ll need to fill out paperwork, attend an orientation, and pass a background check before I begin working with children. Look for updates here on this program as it unfolds.

Meanwhile, laugh or cry:

English Fail

Cakewrecks

Unnecessary quote marks

Do something:

Pro-Literacy Detroit

Detroit Literacy Coalition

Dominican Literacy Center