I gotta say that in my life I’m quite happy to have the world of technology at my side when it comes to spelling (in that first statement alone there were 3 words that were underlined in red). It’s not that I don’t know how to spell, it’s just that why would I use up all that space in my memory warehouse trying to remember how to spell words like license or believe. Spelling in English is hard man. All them stupid rules and letter combinations that make the same sounds. Yeesh!
My wife Megan is the POLAR OPPOSITE. She loves to spell (s-p-e-l-l). Give her any word and she will pull on her cave diving helmet, flip on that headlamp, take a deep breath and dive into the deepest reaches of her brain and by Jove she comes up with it… EVERY TIME!!! When she was a kid she wanted to be a “Speller” for a profession. Now unfortunately that’s not a viable career, however we could probably get her a booth at the Fair.
There is a real divide in my house when it comes to school work. My kids have always been keen to learn how to read and write, and their little brains figure out new spellings for simple words that you’ve never imagined and the funny thing is, I can read it just fine! Experts say to encourage your kids to do stuff like this because it makes ’em smart or something.
So with automatic spell check and txt speak and all kinds of other short cuts I ask you… is spelling really all that important?
-Nic
