Friday, August 08, 2008

Right behind you, lady, and cheering you on

We mustn't give in to those who can't spell.
Just because students can't spell ‘their' and ‘truly' doesn't mean we should accept variations that break all our useful rules


and this comment (in response to the article linked above), cracked me up. It also made sense. I'm SURE I could do "variant mathematics"... :)

"What next? 'Variant' mathematics? One plus one equals three? How about we train a whole generation of engineers or surveyors who can't add up and live with the consequences? Why bother with spelling at all? Anyone for random letters? Ridiculous."
MJ, London.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

One thing that really infuriated me was when (many years back) my kid's SCHOOL (no less) bought into a new "reading software" programme where the children were supposedly "taught" how to "read" phonetically, by spelling (for example) house as "hous" or smoke as "smok". The teacher told me (in response to my incredulous questions) that they would learn the correct spellings in the second grade, when the vagaries of English spelling would be less likely to confound them. You can imagine the confusion, especially since many of the children had already begun to read and spell the "normal" way, yet they were being forced to learn the "new and improved" way.
Sorry, for the rant, but this STILL makes me mad. Is it any surprise that people cannot spell??
Kamini.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I agree with your rant. :) If you dont teach kids to spell correctly the first time around, they'll NEVER learn! As is amply obvious everywhere...

umm oviya said...

seriously, they think it's flexible? and they might just manage to get their way on this one... i am so conscious of my grammar (and every now and then embarassed), moreso because i know i'm not an expert grammarian... but i come across journalists who think it doesn't matter as long as the message gets across. it's ridiculous. they are almost proud of their indifference!

ps: all lower caps, is just a fascination. i know the rules with that one :)