well- I am one of those chronicly bad spellers-- no amount of phonics seems to help.

but it's ashame about no penalty for it. (i always lost points-- i still made honors classes, but never top honors.) One chemisty teach i know "failed" Lab reports in HS chemistry classes. when student objected, "This is English class, spelling shouldn't count" His response was "the only reason you take English classes is to be able to write clear lab reports!" We teased him a bit--"What Shakespeare is training for better lab reports?"-- but he countered that if we could write as wonderfully as shakespeare, it might not matter that we failed chemistry, but he suspected old Will would do better than most on at a lab report.-- Started with writing in full sentences, etc...

I don't remember learning to read--and I don't remember my mother ever reading to me (or my siblings)-- but she loved to read, and read when ever she could-- so i always thought of reading as something "Grown up" I know that i was reading before i started kindergarden-- simple stuff, like sunday comics, and "golden books".

and I also think gonna, wanna, etc, will creep into language-- at one time Good bye was God be with thee-- and it got contracted to Goodbye-- I am sure some scholar of olden days lamented the "slang"-- and wouldn't brook such slang as acceptable. now we have almost forgotten goodbye once meant something else-- and was spelt differently.


my other obsession