A TRADITIONALIST REMAINS UNCONVINCED (COMMENT). I concluded my apology by saying: “For myself, since I am not going to be facing any more English teachers, I intend to use ‘they’ more often.”
Mary Jane commented on my post: “What does he mean he’s not going to be facing any more English teachers? At least one! And a prescriptivist at that!”
I asked Mary Jane just now whether the large number of respectable precedents going back to 1375—in addition to the AP’s change of heart—would change her mind. She said: “Just because a lot of mistakes were made in the past is no reason to keep making them.”