“At the same time, the reformers claim every kid is a potential genius ? Superman ? even if they cannot spell ?its? vs. ?it?s,? ?their? vs. ?there,? or ?Superman? vs. ?Souperman.? In our pursuit of mass excellence, we continue to throw the baby out with the bathwater, abandoning traditional if imperfect practices in favor of new unproven ones. Meanwhile, it takes a layperson to point out what PLCs (?professional learning communities?) seem unable to grasp ? in the words of the Post-Dispatch writer and parent, ?killing the weekly spelling test is more likely to worsen the problem than improve it.?

Just last night, I downloaded a series of what I call English helpers for my child. It addressed sentence structure, basic grammar, basic writing rules, and of course spelling rules.  All included examples done in a simple clear designed. I told my child, followed it when she is writing, and memorized the rules. It will hold you in good stead, when doing final exams and long essay questions. You will thank me later, just like your big brother and sister did when they were in university. 

She put the laminated copies in her English binder, as well as math helpers in her math binder. The top students decided to copy the helpers in my child’s binders, and thank her profusely for allowing them to do the copying.  Even top students are aware that they too are weak in the basics. I just never thought as a parent, without a teacher’s certification being the supplier of basic education information, that should have been taught in elementary school.

I would add to that the growing number of newspaper editors who can’t spell either. 

I saw a phrase in a Star article describing a “bazaar event” that occurred around a news item that was reported.  I chucked and wondered if the bizarre event happened in a church basement at Christmas. 

You can over do it but you can under do it as well. We probably over did it when I was a kid in the 1950s, (copy out every word 20X), but you can under do it as well. I’m not a big fan of creative spelling but prepare for OMG and C U later to join the dictionary soon, LOL.

In my youth, a student copying spelling words 20 times, usually meant the student was being punished for doing something disrespectful to the teacher or other children. In the 60s, english which what it was called back in those days, were broken up into various groupings. Twenty minutes for spelling, 15 minutes for grammar, and anywhere between 30 to 45 minutes for composition writing. There was other block time, that occurred every other day dealing with vocabulary, and other things that were not addressed in the spelling, grammar and composition.And there was lots of time left over, for geography, history, social studies, science, art and music. Oops I forgot one subject, gym, which we had 3 times a week, whether we needed it or not.

Nancy,

One of your misspellings above reminded me of what one student wrote on the back of one of their tests recently:  “I need a touter.”  ... and this was a grade 10 class.

PS:  Just another quick thought - maybe Souperman could be his touter!