You may leave IT, but IT never leaves you...

The urge to correct others is a lifelong habit that teachers (like me) find hard to break. We've done it for so many years - in fact, it was what we were expected (even paid) to do! To put it another way, You can take the teacher out of the classroom, but you can never take the classroom out of the teacher.

So today, walking through a college campus near my house, on my way to the supermarket, I overheard two young women talking.

How many residences does this college have? one asked her friend.

Her friend corrected her: Residi. Not residences. It's one of those words with a Latin ending.

So how many residi are there here?

It was all I could do to keep myself from turning around and saying: Residences is the plural of residence. Residence doesn't end in "U-S". Only words that end in "U-S" sometimes have a plural that ends in "I" (like STIMULUS AND STIMULI).

But I didn't. Was I right or was I wrong? Was this a teaching moment - as teachers often refer to it - or would I have looked like a grumpy old teacher?!!

Beside the residence, a van was parked - it belongs to the catering division of the college, and I've seen it before. I regretted not having my camera with me, as I noticed they had still not corrected the punctuation error that has annoyed me for years. The side of the van, airbrushed with pictures of delicious food, has the motto -

Our goal is simple; to help you with yours.

There should be a colon [:] not a semi-colon [;] after the word "simple." A colon introduces an explanation. In other words, it completes the idea by stating what the goal is.

Do I run up to the driver and point out that one would think that a college van would be free from grammar errors? My family will be happy to know that I didn't - though I wanted someone to be aware.

I remember reading about a dedicated group of people who went around correcting spelling errors on public signs. They eventually got arrested because one of the signs they "corrected" was a priceless historic artifact!

They were probably former English teachers (like me) who couldn't let go! After correcting thousands (if not millions) of errors in students' writing... it's hard to stop!

How else can I explain my mother (another former teacher) at 90 still correcting my spelling mistakes?!