Learning to Reed & Rite

Today’s Irish Times carries a report on educational reform which opens with the sentence “Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has backed reform of the Leaving Cert, which would see less stress on rote learning and more on practical work”.

From some recent written evidence, with multiple incorrect spellings, it would seem that he himself has already instituted a change in “rite” learning.

Of course this may all be a simple misunderstanding of the Taoiseach's position. It may well be that he thinks “rote” is the past tense of “rite”.