Spelling isn’t the boss of you! Orthography is not a tyrannical regime. So just write! This may seem wildly irresponsible for an educator to say, but writing is a beautiful, profound form of self-expression and communication; spelling is just letters arranged into words.
by Lydia c. 1995
Do you have something to say? Does your child or your student have something to say? For goodness’ sake, it needs to be said! Or better yet, written. That way, it won’t fade from memory and later it can bring joy and connection and understanding.
For those who are wringing their hands in frustration, here is a list – everyone likes lists – of reasons to put spelling in its place.
Editing!
Writing is not a single, solid event. Writing is so much more than putting pencil to paper or hands to a keyboard. So scribble or type or dictate and then, if the spectre of bad spelling looms over you, go back and edit your work. Sit with your child or student and show them how the gentle craft of editing chips away at their writing, revealing the sculptural form already present there.
Editing isn’t a process of identifying everything that’s wrong with a text. Editing is the opposite – taking everything that’s good and enhancing, illuminating, and emphasizing it.
Editing isn’t a process of identifying everything that’s wrong with a text. Editing is the opposite – taking everything that’s good and enhancing, illuminating, and emphasizing it.
Motivation
Writing is difficult. Writing is just as difficult for those who can spell, because writing isn’t about letter formation, typing speed, or spelling. Writing is communication and expression. With the exception of lexicographers, we typically don’t go to the dictionary for inspiration. We examine our values, we meditate on our experiences, we entertain our readers, and we confess our feelings.
Do the difficult thing first. Then later, once it has been scribbled or typed or dictated, you – or your student or your child – might look at it and think, “I wrote that! There was nothing there before and now there’s something and I wrote it!” When we take pride in something and feel ownership over it, the motivation to be thorough and meticulous and to care about the details and presentation will arise naturally. Spelling becomes a way to convey exciting ideas – it becomes worthwhile.
Exposure
Narwhals are a popular topic among my students. Several of them (the students, not the narwhals) received narwhal plush toys for recent birthdays or for Christmas. If you – or your child or student – are fascinated by narwhals, you might want to write about them. Writing about them will make you think even more about them, so you might want to watch a video or see a documentary to discover everything there is to know.
Maybe you’ll pick out a nature magazine from the newsstand or a book at the library about narwhals – or earwigs or tap dancing or asteroids. Every time you do that, the spelling of “narwhal” or the words that tend to pop up alongside it (“ocean” or “porpoise”) will be gently reinforced, not by rote memorization or the application of rules, but by genuine interest and enthusiasm.
Immersion
Nothing puts me off doing something creative like being bogged down in technicalities. Many of my students feel the same way. Being corrected or trying to avoid errors saps the joy from something new and fresh. I was not an athletic child, but might have enjoyed sports or other activities a lot more had I been free to bumble around. I might also have persisted, rather than giving up. I am sure you or someone you know has a story like this about the piano or a drawing class, figure skating or soccer.
The tyranny of spelling is enough to sour writing permanently for many budding writers, aspiring poets, potential screenwriters, and shy correspondents. No one masters a complex skill set by giving up or avoiding it. Spelling badly is a far better way to write than not spelling badly, because for many of us, spelling badly is the only way we are going to write when we start out.
Spelling badly is a far better way to write than not spelling badly, because for many of us, spelling badly is the only way we are going to write when we start out.
Who is it even for?
My students have learned to brush their teeth, tie their shoelaces, and play the banjo or bake cookies. When the time came, I learned to do my own taxes and clean the toilet. Some of these skills and habits are unpleasant and others are complex and challenging, but we’ve learned them because there was a reason to do so. We recognized that doing these things wasn’t just a performance or a ritual; they had a purpose and a role in our lives.
So who or what is spelling actually for? In the moment, as we are writing, the spelling is not for us. We know what we’re trying to say, so having to adhere to spelling rules slows us down. When I ask my students who they are writing their assignments and homework for, they correctly say it’s for their teachers. The students also see this as a performance for their teachers. They experience spelling as a ritualistic dance done for approval.
But what if we – young and old, new to English spelling or old enemies – really wrote for someone or something we cared about? What if, instead of writing homework for a teacher, your child or student wrote a book review for a children’s magazine? What if, instead of writing short, self-conscious emails or texts, a survivor of a tyrannical spelling regime started contributing posts to their favourite site? Then spelling might, gradually, become a mundane chore we become more efficient at as we do the important work of expressing ourselves and communicating with others.
PS Confession time
I still have a lot of trouble with spelling. I forget or have never learned the combinations of letters for very common words. There are many ways in which I hope to improve myself and become a better person, but spelling isn’t on that list. I don’t think it’s unimportant, but it isn’t more important than self-expression, communication, and storytelling. In a human lifetime, I can work on becoming wiser, stronger, kinder, or sillier. There are so many things with which to fill up a human life. Spelling is fairly low on that list.
I don’t think [spelling is] unimportant, but it isn’t more important than self-expression, communication, and storytelling.
PPS For the spelling fanatics out there
If communication is important to you, then spelling is one of the many tools available to help you communicate. If your student or your child wants the world to know about narwhals or tap dancing, spelling can be part of that. But in a story about a tap dancing narwhal, I really hope the narwhal and the tap dancing take priority over the spelling of “narwhal” and “tap dancing”.