OT Note from School

Principals aren't always on top of things. I went to my oldest DGS's induction into JR. Honor Society. Now, they knew how many students were to be inducted. The kids started filing in---no seats for any but the first

1. Everything on hold until the idiots moved benches around and found space for all the kids. I really wanted to stand up and ask if anyone on the staff knew how to count. Unbelievable!. Gen

Semester -- appears we're all guilty at one time or another! ;-)

AAARRRGGGHHH!

This teacher must be about the same age as my daughter. When she started school, the district was using that awful Whole Language Program with "best guess spelling." The children were not taught phonics. I had been teaching my children to read using phonics when they were in preschool since that is how I learned. Well, with "best guess spelling" we were not suppose to correct the spelling since that would stifle creativity. She started having spelling tests in 3rd grade when they finally threw the horrible program out the window. She would cry and go batty on Thursday nights since she could not figure out how to spell the words for the test the next day. She graduated from high school at the top of her class and also graduated from University of Pittsburgh at the top of her class. She still can't spell, but knows enough to use a dictionary, grammar/spell check and to ask her brother how to spell something since he never was "blessed" with best guess spelling and spells like a champ!

There are a lot of college instructors who tell me that they know exactly which students were taught best guess spelling since they are very bright articulate students who can't spell worth a darn.

Debbi in SO CA

Listpig wrote:

Oh Good Grief. . In message , Polly Esther writes

Charlie Brown?

Can't help it - I've read all the books! Some totally apposite phrases therein! . In message , Dr. Zachary Smith writes

Well, that makes two new words I learned today! (And got chewed out for using a couple that were too much trouble for some other people to look up.)

Doc

well, my spell checker does not work even though I've tried what has been suggested here. And I've been dyslexic all my life. When I was in the first grade (1956-57) no matter how hard I studied, I could never get that perfect 100% on my spelling tests. Finally, after studying my own words, I learned I was spelling some words backwards. Didn't know it had a real name to this disorder until I was much older. So I tried seeing a word in my mind and just memorizing it so that I could spell it correctly.

I do try my best but still end up spelling words incorrectly whenever I'm in a hurry.

Donna in WA who never did win one of those beautiful butterfly pins the teacher gave away for getting 100% on their spelling tests. :(

That's not ALL bad... Dyslexics have more fnu!

My work is dun as you kin sea its jest a grate as it kin bee their are no eras hear you no my spell checker tolled me sew.

L>well, my spell checker does not work even though I've tried

Hey Mickie, Nice to have you back here with us. : ) DH has got me hearing the things that irritate him. 'Our' and 'are' used in the wrong way is really bad. Few people say 'our'. I guess it is a midwest thing that folks say warsher instead of washer? Libary instead of library? The list goes on and on. Taria

"Mickie Swall" wrote in

Febbiary. Mir. (mirror)

The one, as far as hearing it goes, that's gotten stuck in my consciousness in the last year or two to where I can't ignore it is folks singing the national anthem (before games and such, on tv). They don't seem to grasp that the word is pear-ill-us; except for about 10% who clearly have had musical training on enunciation, they're convinced that the word is pear-roh-less.

Wouldn't pronounce "peril" as "perrow", but "in a state of peril" somehow becomes a spanglish "perro-less": "Hey, senor, no puede find mi dog, soy perroless!" :)

--pig

DD2 was put through a zillion tests for dyslexia. Her reading and spelling were fine, but she had a phase of writing in boustrophedon (first line - left to right, next line - right to left, lather rinse repeat) in her early school years. Sometimes her right to left lines had all the words written backwards. Maybe it had something to do with her being left handed? She grew out of it at any rate.

NightMist

"Then" instead of "than"

All the non-words, like "irregardless" (yes, I know it's gaining ground, but not in my vocabulary.)

Unfortunately, due to prevalent misusage, some words are finding their way into the dictionary, and some words' meanings are being modified to reflect that misusage. (e.g. "decimate" - it's definition now includes, "destroy a large portion of something" when it's true meaning used to be "destroy 1/10 of something.")

Oddly/ironically/hypocritically, I have no objection to the addition of "embiggen" and "cromulent". (Hmmm... now here's something *really* odd. Just for funsies, I looked up "cromulent" in MS's Research tool. It didn't recognize it [no surprise] but offered a spelling alternative of "crapulent" - a real word and a personal favorite, [but probably not what you think] however when I click on the hotlink for crapulent, I get "No results found"...)

Is it any wonder I can pursue a thread on the Latin translation of "crazy quilt" for a week?

Doc

Having two kids to influence made me very conscious of pronunciations - mir-ror was one of them. Right up there with SunDAY MonDAY (I cringed when my mom said Sundee, Mondee, etc.in front of them LOL)

Mickie

Thanks, Taria, good to be back..... ;) Mickie

My spelling is usually rather odd. some of it is American, some of it is British, and some of it is more than a little archaic. Much of it is just bad! (G)

NightMist When >Hi Nightmist,