Nitpicker

This news reminds me of me taking notes in a 11th grade American History class.

A high school student's keen eye has caught a state test error that managed to slip past teachers, test coordinators and other students for almost a year.

Geoffrey Stanford, 17, discovered during a Kansas writing test last week that an essay question concerning greenhouse gases incorrectly used the word "omission" for the word "emission," prompting the Wichita East High School junior to point out the error.

"I thought, `Surely they're not talking about leaving out carbon dioxide altogether.' It just didn't make sense," Stanford said. "It had to be a mistake."

The state Department of Education has e-mailed a corrected version of the essay question to test coordinators around the state, but the incident already has caused a lot of red faces at the department, which used a committee of more than 30 state teachers to develop the test almost two years ago.

All of whom will assign Mr. Stanford more homework to do because he made them look foolish. What should Mr. Stanford go to work on next? The PGA Tour media guide book? The Palm Beach Post editorial page? The columns of Mark Steyn and Paul Krugman?

Speaking as an author, misspellings and incorrect use of some words will always slip through no matter how many times a work is read before publication.