OK, I'm not the spelling police, and gosh knows I make mistakes posting here, BUT, I just now heard a news story where a school in pulling teaching spelling out of the curriculum in grade school!!!! They will only teach spelling based on misspelled words the kids do in regular work!

OK, for my school tax dollars this is NOT a school - just what the heck do they actually plan to teach in grade school??? They're dropping cursive writing, I guess spelling makes sense because if you can't write why spell, and it will follow - if you can't spell how can you read! so maybe that will fly out the window too.

The person representing the school's decision looked about 22 - this makes sense, too, what with the pigin english people his age now use to text. I never used to like the idea of home schooling; but now I'm seeing the best way for kids to be educated is to take that tax money and give it back to parents to home school, or home school collectively where a few families get together and school their kids in very small groups.

No more school board paychecks, superintendant's pay, all manner of admin on all levels, teachers, teachers aides, janitors, bus drivers, buses and building costs. They could also do away with the cost of state level school depts too - they do nothing but suck up tax dollars.

I'm sure kids could at least read/write/ and do math if this happened. They have an online alternative school accredited in SC called SC Connections Academy - they had a yahoo group I joined because I was curious about how this works. It seems to work just fine! Its online, you get all books and materials per school year shipped to you free and can return all for free at the end of the year - your kids learn at their own speed, they have real teacher inter action online for all subjects so you're not all alone trying to teach your child, and they take tests that show their proficiency.

Man, this no spelling just leaves me fabbergasted! sharet

We can only hope and pray someone in higher places will come to their senses.

I'm appalled to hear of this. I was also horrified when I learned they'd stopped teaching cursive writing, too.

Wow, this is hmmmm.... can't quite think of the correct word!
I know things are changing but..........

I hate to hear that! It was bad enough when they stopped teaching cursive!
I am assuming they are relying so much on the computer that spelling won't be necessary as they spell check on all computers will do that for them as well as eliminate the need for cursive.

My question being - how are they going to be able to read all the wonderful things we, our parents, grandparents and earlier generations wrote in diaries, books and notes that were done in cursive?

I love reading my grandmother's diaries.

Phyllis

Our children are so behind most of the other education systems. My granddaughter ended up going to a private school because the public school was dumbing down the classes. And they got rid of the gifted classes. Now granted some kids need extra help but what happened to keeping kids back in school.
I hate seeing kids today that don't know how to write, spell, make change, do simple math, and even read. I am no genius but I can do all those things.
Well except when loss of memory gets in the way. lol

Our schools here haven't taught spelling for a few years..and you wouldn't believe how awful it is to try and read some of the things they write. I worked in a school system and saw this first hand.
We need to get back to the basics!!

Like you I occasionally make mistakes but try to spell properly. I cringe at text message spelling. To do away with spelling when children are young is ludicrous. Children learn and retain things when they are younger.
I'd like to see the three R's return as these form a solid base for further education. I made my girls learn multiplication when their school no longer taught it and always checked their spelling and got them to learn words they had spelled incorrectly.
They all practiced cursive writing at home once they started to learn it at school. They complained at the time but appreciated it as they got older.
Your idea of spending monies on home schooling would certainly save a lot of money but there would be a lot more unemployed. Maybe showing your idea to the powers that be might shake the system up and get it back to teaching kids things they will always need in life. In your country and mine.

It is almost like the No Child Left Behind. That was someone's stupid brain fart too. No way are they ever going to get every child, because it is so costly to try to do. A lot of the schools out there just do not have the money or the teachers to do it with. Some of our best students come from home school also from small schools where teachers are actually allowed to teach, not to follow some idea that higher ups have planned and yes more of our tax dollars going to waste. Her in our small town the board voted to increase the tax mill (because they didn't have enough money to teach the kids) and then on the same page and in the same article they tell of how they were donating $25,000.00 to a walking path of CONCRETE that goes a mile around the school area for people to walk on. What a waste. They also forget that some places may not have computers or calculators so if they don't teach spelling, writing and math, how are the kids supposed to make it out there in the real world? Setting them up to live on the State system.

The kids who don't learn spelling will get jobs doing menial work - their bosses - the kids who DID learn spelling.