by Jono on Mon Aug 25, 2008 12:53 am
First Point: "Lets blame the education system"
I've administered spelling tests for an infants school. There are a couple of outstanding kids who never put a foot wrong, and one or two who have serious literacy problems. But most of the kids are somewhere in the middle. Consider that all these children, for better or for worse, are required to attend schooling until the age of 16 by law. Thats hardly the same situation from 1895. back then, only the tiny percentage at the top of the pile got any kind of formal education, with an even smaller group going to university. Most of those average students who nowadays do have the chance at further education would never have seen schooling. As for the children with severe learning difficulties; do you think most Edwardian schools would have bothered with them?
Its only in the last hundred years that everyone in this country has had access to primary education, and only in the last 60 years that secondary education was thrown in. You're comparing a system where schools only had to deal with a tiny number of pupils, and could drum out all the dyslexics and slow-learners. The education system these days has to deal with everyone; not just the best and the brightest!
Second Point: Mr Smith is not suggesting we purge the written word with fire (judging by some of the responses, this seems to be the impression). Rather, he is recognizing the bleeding obvious; that there is a difference between spelling mistakes where the intention is obvious, and spelling mistakes that leave a piece completely incomprehensible. Lets be frank; If this university held its students to rigid SPAG requirements, most of us wouldn't have made it through first year. But it doesn't. Firstly, because misplacing a vowel does *NOT* equate to being a complete illiterate (in the same way passing a driving test does not make you a racing driver). Second, Because a working knowledge of your subject is and always has been more important than the spelling.
Perfect spelling and grammar is desirable and admirable. But managers not going to say "Outstanding employee; Smart; insightful; hard working. But oh shit, he put a comma in the wrong place in his last report; FIRE THAT NONCE!" I can't help but draw parallels between this debate, and the old-issues surrounding provincial accents. Its fair to say that Scots don't need elocution lessons anymore to be taken seriously in the world of business. As long as you can communicate with the written word in a way other people understand, then a degree of misspelling is perfectly forgivable.
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I disagree with you in principle.
Now some people weren't happy about the content of that last post. And we can't have someone not happy. Not on the internet.