EDITORIALS: Abolish Standard Spelling?

[Ryan Goble]

Excellent point and counterpoint from Wired Magazine that you could use as models of persuasive writing. Certainly an interesting topic for the text generation!

Read this full article at http://www.wired.com/magazine/2012/01/st_essay_autocorrect

Read the full counterpoint HERE.

[Shirley Durr]

I think I'll share these articles with some of my classes. They are great for persuasion examples. Spelling is important to some of my students and an evil demon to others. I wonder how they'll line up in the debate? I'll let you know when I do this but it won't be soon. Testing season is before us and we don't always have the class time to teach sustained lessons.

Meanwhile, I couldn't resist the following comments.

• Any time someone complains about what computers do, I think of Isaac Asimov, the late science fiction author who created the idea of robotics. Asimov felt that machines only do what we humans tell them to do. Don't blame a machine for autocorrect; blame the person who programmed the machine.
• Spelling rules arose only when literacy moved beyond a select elitist class. Before that it was akin to tweeting your buds. You all knew what you meant with your creative spelling because you were of the same class and set of values. The rules mean that people who are not like us have a chance to understand us when we write.
• As for me, I don't "tweet" because I don't have an urge to share my ideas without thinking about them first for a while. The "tweets" I've seen do not simulate any conversations I hear except for my youngest students and acquaintances. And most of them eventually grow up and open their world to greater possibilities. Until that maturity happens, they delight in knowing a select language that only those who are like them can understand.
• NOTE: I've turned off the autocorrect on my machines that do so. I always hated how the machine changed my "which" to "that" when I didn't want it. I do spellcheck but I also read and take note of suggestions because I don't always want the spelling offered. I see any mistakes I make (and don't catch) as a delightful sign of my humanity. We humans do tend to err, you know.
• ANOTHER NOTE: Some of my students did not grow up speaking and writing English. They already struggle to write in English and understand written English. The spelling rules have patterns that help them understand. Even the exceptions help them see the patterns. And they get it (a little better than native English speakers) when I explain that the variations in pronunciation and spelling patterns reflect the willingness of the English language to take in other languages and their spelling patterns.  They see it as part of the freedom the language offers and the possibility of change. What is more, when a word comes from my students' languages, they recognize the patterns.

[Ryan Goble]

Shirley, what a thoughtful response - now teachers can use the two essay's above AND your response.  I love how you further problematize the discussion.  I am a bit dyslexic so spelling is a bear but don't know that we need to blow up the language just yet - I'm all for evolution over revolution!  Thanks for the addl. ed.