The "Great Apostrophe Debate" is over!
The University of Minnesota's Great Apostrophe Debate is over, and defenders of the much-maligned punctuation mark are in mourning.
The university's Scholars Walk will be just that -- a Scholars Walk, not a Scholars' Walk.
"I'm terribly disappointed," said Larry Laukka, who leads the group developing the walkway that will pay tribute to eminent scholars and students. "But I had to bow to their whims."
Who weighed in on the debate?
English and rhetoric professors, e-mailers from around the U.S. and even the Apostrophe Protection Society of England weighed in on the issue. Laukka tried to persuade the board members of the nonprofit University Gateway Corp. that an apostrophe would add distinction by hinting that in a sense, the walk is owned by those it honors.
What was the final reasoning?
"We want the Scholars Walk to be as inclusive as possible," Carlson said. "When people are on campus for the first time or the third time and they walk that walk, we want them to be proud that they are part of the university even if their name isn't chiseled in granite or etched in glass."
According to the article, this walkway is to commemorate the achievements of various professors and students from the campus. I took it as being similar to Hollywood Walk of Fame. So to me, this debate wasn't just about correct punctuation - it was about the philosophy of higher education - and the status quo won. In other words, the "everybody's special" reasoning won out. It's that line of reasoning that is so pervasive in the academy today - the reasoning that brings forth grade inflation, that directs us to believe in not just equality of opportunity, but equality of outcome. But the amount of effort put forth depends upon the expected reward, and if no-one gets a differential reward, where's the incentive to put forth the extra effort? How much learning would there be in a class if the teacher gave everyone the average score in the class?
I recall one of my favorite lines from The Incredibles. Dash is being taken home from school with his mother. He has gotten in trouble and Dash and his mom are discussing why he is getting in trouble. Dash says that if he were allowed to go out for athletics, he'd be less likely to be a miscreant. But his mother will have no part of this. There is this exchange between Dash and his mom:
Dash: You always say "do your best," but you don't really mean it. Why can't I do the best I can do?
Mom: Right now, honey, the world just wants us to fit in. And to fit in, we've just got to be like everybody else.
Dash: But dad always said our powers were nothing to be ashamed of. Our powers made us special.
Mom (exasperated): Everyone's special, Dash.
Dash: Which is another way of saying "no-one is."