Hey, at least I’m not talking about revoking his breathing license.
Fed up with his students’ complete inability to spell common English correctly, a British academic has suggested it may be time to accept “variant spellings” as legitimate.
Rather than grammarians getting in a huff about “argument” being spelled “arguement” or “opportunity” as “opertunity,” why not accept anything that’s phonetically (fonetickly anyone?) correct as long as it can be understood?
“Instead of complaining about the state of the education system as we correct the same mistakes year after year, I’ve got a better idea,” Ken Smith, a criminology lecturer at Bucks New University, wrote in the Times Higher Education Supplement.
“University teachers should simply accept as variant spelling those words our students most commonly misspell.”
Or, to act sanely, university teachers could simply fail students who somehow made it to the university level without proper spelling skills. This would send them back to remedial classes where they will gain skills to carry with them through the rest of their lives.
You know, actual “Teaching”.
Wow, great plan there Mr. Perfesser, except what do we do about words that are phonetically the same but spelled differently? Oh, that’s right, the reader can just use context to glean the meaning. Of course, if the writer is incapable of using a spell checker or mastering the skill of proper spelling, what on Earth makes anyone think that they will be able to form sentences that are structured properly and thus provide a clear context by which meaning can be assessed?
So, basically, the teacher was fed up with his inability to teach, so he completely gave up as opposed to just slacking off like he was before. Then he had the nerve to blame the children, and come up with a cute little way to rationalize out his failure.
What a waste. And all the more cause for me to consider homeschooling any future progeny.