Take thys blog and spel it corectely*
I got a chuckle out of the responses generated from this Orlando Sentinel School Zone blog post:
"Hi, all. I am working on a story about teachers, principals and school administrators who can't/won't write properly. So, I am collecting anecdotes and accompanying evidence --anything and everything from letters sent home with kids, websites plagued with errors or wacky signs (a school sign in Orlando says it is "illeagle" to park within 50 feet of a stop sign). If you've got kids or know people who do and would like to share your stories and notes, please write me at czequeira@orlandosentinel.com. Thanks in advance. And keep the stories coming!"
The blog entry at our sister paper generated 34 comments – by far one of the most commented blog post of the year. (I visit the site regularly.) Who knew that spelling could be such a touchy subject?
One reader wrote: “Can I ask why? What is the purpose of this? To further damage the reputation of our schools? Why don't you spend the time you are putting into this story to volunteer and help out at a school-maybe by proofreading newsletters, etc.? Is this the kind of journalism we should be promoting?"
Another reader wrote: “This is despicable. Teachers are busy people. I think PARENTS need to be more concerned about what their students are turning in as opposed to how we compose emails. Have you seen your kid's homework lately? How about the text messages? Guess what, what they give to teachers looks exactly the same. How about you help them out, teach them how to spell "because" instead of "bc".”
A reader named “Former source of Sentinel revenue!” wrote: “The Orlando Sentinel should ashamed of themselves for employing this so called journalist, and for entertaining the idea of this article. Shame on you! I just called and cancelled my subsciption, and will no longer advertise my business with your paper, as I have for the last 2 1/2 years.”
The other comments included readers who supported the idea of holding teachers more accountable to readers who echoed the three opinions from above. I tried to contact the reporter who posted the blog entry and got no response. Thanks Claudia. Anywho…
As one of the worse spellers in the world – thank goodness for spell check – I wanted to get your input on this issue. Do you think that this is a relevant story? Or do you think that this is yet another unfair attack on educators? Do you think that educators should be held to a higher standard because they are in charge of molding the future generation?
* And yes, I know that the headline and some of the reader comments are spelled incorrectly…
Baltimoresun.com's 
Comments
"Relevant" might be a stretch, but it DOES matter.
Communication skills are of paramount importance. Anything less than perfection (without reason, like the blog's headline) should cause one to wonder about credibility and credulity.
In the grand scheme of issues like fighting and funding, 'illeagle' is realtively minor concern, certainly. But what 'illeagle' does is cause one to think "If the teacher can't spell (or take the time to spellcheck) a fairly simple word correctly -- on a publicly viewed sign, no less -- how is this person teaching my child to spell? To write? To think?
Your copy editor did a post on errors at the paper which in turned linked to a fellow copy editor's post on teachers needing editors that really hits the heart of the issue: "Others may be permitted to misspell, misuse or otherwise botch the language. Those whose job it is to communicate and teach are not."
Posted by: steegness | November 14, 2007 12:23 PM
Mencken would surely have made the most sagacious satirical comments about this sort of boobery. (PS, "boobery" is not recognized by my spell check)
Posted by: VoiceForSchoolTruth | November 14, 2007 5:55 PM
Of COURSE spelling counts. Materials that come to me from North Avenue that are rife with spelling errors make me berzerk. When I call them on it, the excuse I get is, "I ran the spell checker on it..."
Witch is grate two no, because according too my spell checker, awl the words in this sentence are spelt write.
*sigh*
Posted by: Claude | November 14, 2007 11:05 PM