Spell Check
The media is agog this morning with video of the national spelling bee. Most eyes are on a little six year old competitor who is the epitome of the precocious, home-schooled child. That's right, she is only six. Unfortunately our heroine left the competition after incorrectly spelling ingluvies a word nobody uses that has something to do with a bird's throat or esophagus. You see where this is going. What strikes me most about the little girl's defeat is the crestfallen look on her face. One wonders if this isn't some form of emotional abuse? I agree that it is important to spell correctly, but at what cost? An educator I admire, Hugo Kerr, believes that there is an emotional component to asking kids to spell correctly all the time. In a recent post on a list-serv we both belong to he wrote: "...spelling is not related to writing technically speaking, but it is closely related emotionally! Most less than perfectly literate adults are vary wary of