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Subject:Re: Yay or Nay From:Matt Gras <mattgras -at- comcast -dot- net> To:John Allred <jack -at- allrednet -dot- com> Date:Wed, 1 Feb 2012 14:31:27 +0000 (UTC)
Agree, mostly. But I also know from experience that the ability to express oneself in writing that is eloquent, vivid, compelling, and beautiful has very little to do with one's ability to spell or conform to the "rules" of grammar.
Matt Sean Gras
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Allred " <jack@ allrednet .com>
To: "Dan Goldstein " < DGoldstein @ riveraintech .com>
Cc: "<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 1, 2012 6:08:20 AM
Subject: Re: Yay or Nay
At the risk of showing my age, what this Newthink action highlights is the loss of vision for what our educational system should provide: improving our ability to think.
Recalling the introduction of slide rules (remember those?) and calculators into math testing, educators decided that the end goal of getting the answer was more important than having their students understand the process.
In the "real world," precious few people can spell above third grade level, and as few also use their spell checkers.
Once they figure out how to get MS Word to do the thinking and writing, they can pay kids $10 dollars an hour to pull the paper off the printer and make neat stacks of them.
Where has our collective vision of our future gone?
On Feb 1, 2012, at 7:37 AM, "Dan Goldstein " < DGoldstein @ riveraintech .com> wrote:
> "We are not letting a student's keyboarding skills get in the way of being able to judge their writing ability," said state Superintendent Susan Castillo.
>
> The state Superintendent thinks that all spelling errors are the result of hitting the wrong key on the keyboard. Sounds pretty ridiculous to me.
>
> Obviously, you don't "have to be good at spelling to be a good writer." But that's not the question at hand.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: DaLy
> Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 7:44 PM
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: Yay or Nay
>
> Â
> Do you have to be good at spelling to be a good writer? Not necessarily, at least not in Oregon public schools?
> Â
> http :// www . oregonlive .com/education/index. ssf /2010/12/ oregon _will_allow_students_to. html
> Â
> I think spelling, grammar ,and structure are as important as content. IMHO, this is just another way to push kids through the public school system.
> Â
>
>
>
>
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