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S i d e b a r
Inaccuracy is Lying
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This Rock
Volume 19, Number 1
 January 2008 
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No one would really want to return to the days of ruler-smacked palms and dunce caps, but the sisters and those young women of the frontier who ran their one-room schools (so much a part of American folklore and literature) knew what worked. They and demanded hard work and accurate spelling and ciphering as the price of a grade, the foundation of self-respect, the sine qua non of "self-esteem."
We have to insist on the necessity of accuracy because literacy and numeracy are accuracy of writing and of calculation. Dorothy L. Sayers was fond of quoting her fellow Oxford Christian Charles Williams’ line, "Hell is inaccurate." And the old saw, "The devil is a liar," may explain some of what has gone wrong in our schools since the old insistence on accuracy gave way to self-esteem.
Inaccuracy is lying, to others and to oneself. The habit of accuracy carries over into the habit of self-honesty, humility, getting the facts straight. We hold there is a Truth, and so we dare not get careless about the little truths. Teachers, and the students themselves, must take a firm stand about accuracy or lose heaven.
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