I shall paraphrase what's in the AP article (the page I found it on has lots of ads):

There is a "Support For Spelling" document being sent to primary schools saying there are too many exceptions for the "i before e, except after c" rule to be a viable one, and teachers should stop teaching it. For ex. sufficient, veil, and their.

Apparently they have a Spelling Society there(!). There are some supporters of continuing to teach the rule, saying it's one of the few that most people tend to remember.

On a personal note: I think I might actually live. I found out out the other night that Hubby's stomach upset was not food poisoning.

I totally support the concept of a SPELLING SOCIETY. I think it should be mandatory for teachers of
English Grammar and literature. The spell check mechanisms are OK if used properly, unfortunately too
many students rely on them. Give an essay test as I used to do, and see what it produces. I used to
make spelling a big part of my teaching, and would do so even more were I teaching today.
I am not a fan of 'texting' - and I don't care whose feelings that hurts. It is destroying the
concept of spelling.

It is destroying the concept of spelling.

Doubtful that txting will destroy anything, and I don't care how many Casandras lament it. Doubtful even more so that "the concept of spelling" in English exists. What we have in English orthography is about the crappiest system imaginable, except perhaps Japanese or Tibetan.

Are you not a bit harsh on your English spelling? I loved English because it's grammar and spelling were clearer and had less exceptions than our own. I had better results in English than in Dutch though I like both languages equally.

Are you not a bit harsh on your English spelling?

Not at all. I, too, love the English language, but a language is not its spelling system. Our orthography causes more problems than its worth. A semi-phonetic system like Spanish or Italian would be much better suited for pedagogical reasons. And, as I've said before, it ain't going to happen any time soon, short of the destruction of anglophone nation states.

Rather than coming up with cockamamie delusional, anecdotal, ad hoc, and mnemonic spelling rules, we should just use the brute force, rote memorization process. Either way, few will ever master the system, which is pretty much how it's always been.

For more about this UK notion, see:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/8110573.stm

and also a recent edition of the free weekly newsletter on English (both UK and US) sent by Michael Quinion from

http://www.worldwidewords.org/

where you can also look up stuff and order a subscription.

I don't think they should ditch the rule. Maybe modify it.

Not sure if this works but,

When following a C the I follows E?

but a language is not its spelling system. Our orthography causes more problems than its worth.

I wholeheartedly agree ! This is also valid for German, which sees endless squabbles over its "new" orthography. Skills in orthography vary tremendously among people of comparable intelligence. Should the "less gifted ones" be punished?

"Good stuff, Maynard", as the old tv commercial said, I read it weekly and have many bookmarked,thanks.

So true, so true. As a high school English teacher it was a real problem, more so than spelling.

>>Skills in orthography vary tremendously among people of comparable intelligence. Should the "less gifted ones" be punished?
>As a high school English teacher it was a real problem, more so than spelling.

I'm sorry, but this came across to me as "orthography skills were more of a problem than spelling", which just has me shaking my head.
-joe (metaphorically speaking) friday

You mean this?

orthography –noun, plural -phies for 3–5.
1. the art of writing words with the proper letters, according to accepted usage; correct spelling.

synonymous? confusing.

orthography 

The flip side, orthoepy, was real big in the rhetorical 19th century. (BTW, it's a good Dutch word, too: orthografie, pretty much synonymous with spelling.)

Yes we have in fact the choice of exactly the same words, but frankly in school we simply only used spelling, which saved us from confusing it with ornithology. We used aardrijkskunde, not geografie.

Did it help??

i am not sure i understand the change--our old rule was "i before e except after c, or when sounded as a, as in neighbor or weigh" so two of their exceptions aren't exceptions. Most of us also memorized the most common exceptions along with the rule--either, neither, foreign, forfeit, height, leisure or seize.

We did! Thanks.

I think the point is how many exceptions to a rule does it take before it's not really a rule?