by Editorial Board, the Oregonian
In a letter to a friend, Mark Twain suggested the difference between the right word and the almost-right word was the difference between lightning and a lightning bug — this from a man who, already a literary treasure, railed publicly about the difficulties of spelling words right. Now comes the Oregon Department of Education, which has decided to allow middle and high school students the use of spell-checking software while taking online writing and content-mastery tests. No need to worry about spelling correctly or losing time on it — just focus on the ideas, the grammar, the marvelousness of well-constructed sentences and paragraphs as they tumble forward. Well, let’s rane on Twain — oops, the computer just coughed. Is it rein? Reign? Hmmn, let’s choose rain. It’s truly raining in public education. The decision to allow spell-checking on a writing test is a setback for young people, who must, though several educationalists would dispute it, be able to spell with reasonable competence in order to read with comprehension and write with proficiency.
http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2010/12/spell-checked_and_checked_out.html
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