Why are Kidz is Ilitterit

The following letter, along with the editor's reply, is copied in its entirety from yesterday's New York Post.

I have been a teacher in the New York City school system for over twenty years. For all of that time, I have also been a very proud member of the UFT.

Over the last several years, there have often appeared very negative comments presented in your editorials about the quality of New York City teachers.

You have frequently alluded to the fact that many or most teachers cannot spell correctly.

I would personally like to correct your front-page headline "Isiah Getting Just Deserts" (Oct. 27).

Deserts are arid regions. I think you meant to say the word "dessert."

I would like to think this was just a typo. However, perhaps whoever wrote this headline was not fortunate enough to attend school in New York City.

Rita Cooperman

New York Teacher

The Bronx

EDITOR'S NOTE: The American Heritage Dictionary, 4th Edition, defines "desert," as: n., something that is deserved or merited, especially a punishment. Often used in the plural.

Ms. Cooperman, take heart. While you were indeed made a fool of in the pages of the UFT-trashing New York Post, you also happened upon a truth: illiterates are churned out by unionized public schools everywhere, even those in the Elysian Fields of Greenwich, Connecticut.