Conference thebay::joyoflex

157.0. "The perils of writing in haste" by TLE::SAVAGE (Neil, @Spit Brook) Thu Mar 06 1986 12:44

Associated Press Thu 06-MAR-1986 02:06                      Grammar-Principal

        Principal Who Lost Job For Poor Grammar Vows To Teach Again
    
                            By STEVE BAKER
                        Associated Press Writer
    
    ELK VALLEY, Tenn. (AP) - An elementary school principal who
    pleaded to keep his job in a letter filled with grammatical errors
    now says he should have polished his writing before sending it to
    state education officials.
    
    "I was in a hurry. I didn't figure it'd be anything that
    important," said Ken Ballard, 22, who became principal at Elk
    Valley Elementary less than two years after graduating from high
    school.
    
    State officials, who began checking closer into Ballard's
    credentials after reading the letter, say his degree came from a
    diploma mill in Paris.
    
    Ballard's January dismissal has divided this rural, mining
    community 150 miles east of Nashville, where some people regard him
    as a capable man being punished for his lack of advanced education.
    
    "It didn't seem anybody was hurt by his lack of education,"
    said Gilbert Lay, 30, the assistant principal at the 150-pupil
    school. "If a man proves he can do the work, I say let him do it.
    "I think a lot of people feel he lost his job because he didn't
    have the right piece of paper, and that's not right."
    
    But others are bitter that Ballard taught their children for
    three years before anyone learned that his education consisted of a
    few night classes and several years of correspondence courses.
    
    "I'm glad it's over and I'm glad he's gone," said Mary Ellard,
    who has two children still in the elementary school and a daughter
    who graduated last year and is now in high school.
    
    "He couldn't help the kids with their homework," Mrs. Ellard
    said. "He couldn't do the math. I want somebody who can teach my
    kids."
    
    Ballard said he was made principal his first year at Elk Valley
    Elementary because "nobody else wanted it." The principal's job
    has traditionally gone to the person with the least seniority, he
    said.
    
    "You don't get any more money and you have to answer the office
    phone and teach your class," said Ballard, who estimated his
    take-home pay at $220 per week.
    
    After state officials asked him in a routine letter for more
    details of his educational background, Ballard sent them a letter
    filled with grammatical errors.
    
    "The school in which I attended DePaul University I have wrote
    several times myself. I was informed there had been a fire which
    destroy most if not all of it. I hope this explain why your letters
    have been returned," Ballard wrote. "I love teaching more than
    anything and I hope to remain as a teacher. I have had a rough time
    as a teacher. My first year I had to serve as Principal at Elk
    Valley Elem. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to teach the 8th grade
    also, but I amaze myself."
    
    In an interview later, Ballard said he began taking courses by
    mail as a high school sophomore.
    
    "I paid the money, I did the workbooks and I got my grades,"
    he said. "I don't call that a diploma mill."
    
    But FBI records show that Charles Alfred Durham of Clemson,
    S.C., was convicted in September of operating two bogus
    universities, one of which was DePaul University in France.
    
    "He got a mail-order diploma and used it to be certified to
    teach and nobody caught it," said Nelson Andrews, chairman of the
    state Board of Education. "It was a clerical error of the first
    order and it took his letter to get our attention."
    
    Donna Manis, who led the effort in Campbell County to have
    Ballard removed, said his presence in the classroom was an insult
    to the teachers who obtained degrees the proper way.
    
    Ballard says he plans to return to teaching after taking night
    classes at a nearby college.
    
    "I love it. For all its problems it still is the thing I want
    to do. And I will again someday," he said.