No need to apologize. I understand your point. Sadly, in the English language there is not an accepted solution just yet. I have always learned that "their" or "they" should only be used as a plural pronoun. I would never turn in a paper to a college professor using "their" instead of "his" (although I use it quite often on here specifically for the reason you state).
But that is my preference. I choose to go against the rules of formal writing. That does not mean others have to.
"His/her" or "her/his" has become acceptable but it can be "clunky" stylistically. Personally I prefer to handle the problem by using "his" and "her" interchangeably. I try to mix it up through a long piece of writing as much as I can.
But again, to each her own.
But the fact is, that in English writing and speaking, masculine pronouns are commonly understood to be universal. This does put a burden on the reader to gauge by context if a piece is sexist or not. Hopefully it is easy to see from the context of hundreds of posts that this particular author is not sexist.
I think this might be a case where you are missing the forest through the trees.
Like I said, I didn't assume the author was sexist, just didn't appreciate the language being masculine.
You saying "forest through the trees" is exactly the kind of negating comment I was talking about when I said I was fearful I would be made to seem irrational. To be fair, I spoke to many of my colleagues and they felt that the language was inappropriate as well.
I have a lot of respect for what you do and how you've advocated for your colleague, but I'm feeling a bit like no matter what I say I'm in the wrong here.
I think it's time for Ol' Kim to take a break.
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You spoke to many colleagues about a post encouraging people to
"Write an article about a very important historical person who influenced our world with their research or invention."
and determined the language was "inappropriate" because it included the word "even" following that very clearly gender neutral introduction?
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No, sorry if I wasn't clear--I asked my colleagues if I was reading too much in to "Often in schools we see that students are capable of so much more. How do you motivate a child to reach his full potential?"
This was before the post you're talking about.
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Please know I am writing this with a smile.
This has gone way too far. We all care tremendously about education and ALL students. We are arguing about whether or not "his" should be seen as gender specific or universal. That is not my call.
I have no idea who to lobby in order to make "they" and "their" officially recognized as grammatically correct but if you find out and are able to argue our case to them, I will back you up 100%. For now, let's not get hung up on one of the many very weird things about the English language.
After we win the "their/they/them" battle, I would love to find out how the heck the "L" in "colonel" can make an "r" sound.
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