One of the kids came home from school with a corrected essay that had been written for language arts, which in my day was called English.  One of the corrections was the word "ficticious" being circled accompanied by the word "fictitous" as the correct spelling.  At the end of the paper the teacher wrote "Always check the dictionary."

Indeed.

Is it just me or does calling English "language arts" seem a little too vague?  After all couldn’t the study of Spanish or French also be called "language arts?"  Did the English teachers’ union decide that they needed a fancier title or was this foisted on them by some bureaucrat with nothing better to do?  Am I sounding like Andy Rooney, only less wrinkled and slightly less stooped?