Good Reason

It's okay to be wrong. It's not okay to stay wrong.

Maybe he’s just a spelling reform advocate.

Senator Steve Fielding’s fiscal gaffe is in the news.

Gaffe-prone Family First Senator Steve Fielding has made another blunder while trying to clarify his economic position.

Senator Fielding, who previously called a double dissolution election, “double disillusionment”, has frequently spoken about “physical policy” instead of “fiscal policy”.

When questioned about the mispronunciation this morning, he only managed to jam his foot further into his mouth.

“I’ll make it quite clear: fiscal, F-I-S-K-A-L,” he spelt.

The journalist repeated the misspelling, prompting Fielding to correct himself.

“F-I-S-C-A-L. Yeah, fiscal.”

I’m not here to pile on. I don’t think it’s fair to label someone as thick just because they can’t spell. Spelling is a superpower that was thrust upon me at birth, and I don’t know how someone could go about acquiring it.

What I would be more embarrassed about is being a Family First senator. And saying things like divorced people are harming the planet, a piece of claptrap which I covered a couple of years ago. I would also be embarrassed to be a citizen in an electorate that had a Family First MP.

I hope he really does have a genuine learning disability, as he says he does. Using the term ‘learning disability’ as a cover for more general ‘not knowing how to spell words and stuff’ would be really slimy.

5 Comments

  1. I think it's important to reassure the public that said learning disability has in no way affected his politics.

  2. Hi Daniel,

    I am sorry this comment is not about misspelling senators but I didn't know how to leave a comment outside the topic threads. I would like to know what you feel about the following subject- Montessori education. I have a 10 yr old who went to a Steiner school till class 3 and we moved him at the beginning of class 4 to a local public school. Don't exactly love it, but I think certain aspects of his education were hampered by the other school. Anyway, now the hunt is on for kid no. 2, presently at a lovely steiner-based home preschool -4 kids in all. We are considering the Montessori school for him, ( can't bear to go back to above- mentioned Steiner school )wondering what you thought of that system of education? Either way, hope they grow up knowing there are no K's in fiscal !!!

  3. Hey, lazy.

    I don't know. Aside from being a dad — and having gone to school once — I don't have any expertise in this area. (I went to a really great freaked-out lab school where they tried everything out on us!)

    But, hey, if you want my opinion…

    Ideologies are things I try not to get to attached to. Steiner folks really do get attached to Anthroposophy — I don't know about Montessori folks.

    It seems to me that the most important thing for the younger kids is that the child likes the school they're going to. If they're getting opportunities to do stuff they like to do, and school's a good place for them, they'll do well. I've seen happy and well-educated kids in Steiner, Montessori, and public schools.

    The second most important thing is that they have at least one parent who is engaged and active in the child's educational life, reinforcing the good stuff, filling in the gaps, and (especially for Steiner) evening out the weirdnesses.

    Montessori's probably fine.

  4. True that it's not a big deal, but just compare that to Senator Al Franken

  5. Response to lazy;

    I've got a son who went to Montessori through kindergarten and is now in 1st grade at a public school. His spelling is great! They taught him all about phonyms, and encouraged him to write freely – without worrying about spelling etc till he got used to the process. I said he'll soon be spelling better than me, and my husband said that wouldn't be much of an accomplishment. 🙁

    It was a really good fit for him and his personality. I've seen other kids totally flame out in Montessori though. I think it works well if the child is self directed and can focus on a project.

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