I saw on last night's news that Oregon is going to allow students to use spell checkers on exams. I suppose this will bring on a loud protest from the Luddites about the end of the education system. The truth is that, even with checkers, most people won't use them or, if they do will not know if there, their or they're spelled word is correct. For years I dealt with those who thought that using calculators would spell the end of mathematic. While I agree 100% with their use, it created a problem in that students believed the numbers that came out of the machine even if they made no sense whatsoever with the data entered. I suspect these spell checkers are going to require a change in what students are taught just as the calculator has for the teaching of mathematics--while they are going to make things easier to get correct and understand you're still going to have to know basic spelling/grammar to make them work.
I believe that students should learn arithmetic and spelling first so that they understand. It's many moons since I was a student but we were expected to write good English whatever the subject. However, I accept that some people find spelling, grammar and arithmetic difficult, just as I struggled with chemistry. Moreover, some advanced calculations would take an age if done by hand. After student days are over, I see no harm in using spell checkers. In fact, I wish that more people would install them on their computers so that possible errors were highlighted automatically. My grammar and spelling is far from perfect and my fingers are almost dyslexic on the keyboard at times. The spell checker helps me to spot my errors quickly when I scan what I have typed (my eyes are on the keyboard as I type). I think that it's important as a courtesy to our readers to do the best job that we can. I agree with you about the use of calculators without an understanding of arithmetic. Again, it's easy for the fingers to press a wrong key and get a stupid answer so we should at least be able to calculate mentally a rough answer to the sum as a check. In fact, if you are good at mental arithmetic it can be quicker than fumbling with a calculator. Do we change our view with age, though? I was at school before electronic pocket calculators we introduced to the market by Sir Clive Sinclair but would have loved to have one of the book calculators to hand. Now, I like to keep my brain active and usually check my electronic calculation with mental arithmetic. I groan when young people grab a calculator for the simplest sum.
My personal pet peeve is that too many people depend on spell checkers and they don't catch homonyms. I find this problem in novels, newspapers and on-line news stories. Use the spell-checker, but read your output to make sure that the correct word is used. "Except" and "accept" can send me into a screaming frenzy!
I would like people to use spell check too. I would also appreciate it if people would capitalize words and I. Texting has made people very lazy. I have to think of the proper usage of words like there, their and they're, but I do it. Sometimes it's difficult to understand what someone is trying to say, because the grammar and spelling is so poor. Sorry, rant over.
Before we let students use "spell check", we should teach them the difference between there, their, and they're; and also two, to, and too. Just a thought.
Quote:Im with ya hunny-( nice avatar ) Im so sick of both my children relying on spellcheck when do homework-we never had it and we did just fine-I will let them use it to finalize reports for run-ons and common sentence structure but turn it off until then. The Math drives me nuts-my oldest (15) asked me last night mom whats 9 x7? I looked at her and said what are you in 2nd grade again? figure it out yourself! I said that number should immediately pop into your head! My youngest (12) asks me all the time "Mom..what this plus this or what's this times that?" I always say "Figure it out, Im not doing your homework for you!" They always do but try to get out the lazy way-I will sit down everynight and go through every math question and help correct errors-if I understand the Math LOL
It's called the dumbing down of America and it is working quite well. 1+1=, wait I have to get the calculater. I once worked with a Vo-Tech grad in carpentry who couldn't read a Measuring Tape. didn't we learn to read a ruler in 4th Grade. What happened to reading, 'riteing, and 'rithmatic?
You know, I downloaded a spell checker that works in any field on the internet besides the address bar and what not. So write now, if I screw up a word, I get the red squiggle. However, notice the "write" now flaw? That's the problem with spell check. If you rely on it, you'll make mistakes like that. Yeah, it's spelled right. Too bad it's the wrong word. I need a bran knew computer! Look! Spelled that right too. But what the heck does that sentence mean? In MS Word you'll get a green squiggle for non-spelling related mistakes. Which is handy when you need to write something several pages long at like 2am the night before it's due. But if you want to be actually GOOD at writing, or being able to communicate in the written word, or if you get a job that requires it.... you need to actually learn it and not rely on technology. Remember way back in school, i before e except after c? Like receipt. But then "their" doesn't follow that rule. I screw up a lot in with punctuation, I've seen my papers returned to me with ok grades, but still marked up in red. My sentence structure has some issues too. Lot's of green squiggles even now, years after learning some of the details of writing. Many people don't learn it. Or they rely on technology to fix it for them. So when it comes time to email the boss something important, they set themselves up to not look so great when the boss reads the email. Or if you have to work with people in another building or city, email is commonly used. How do you "sound" to this person you work with but have never met? All they know you by is your emails. Online forums are casual and social. But still a great way to practice! Same concept of how we are seen by everyone through how we write. Makes it hard on people who have dyslexia, or someone who didn't put their glasses on. But that's way different than someone who just doesn't try to type cohesive and well thought out posts. But writing... it has nothing to do with natural ability. Natural ability is the ideas you have to write about, being able to put thoughts into words. How you punctuate, use of capitals, ect... that's all learned. No need to learn math, just get good at using a calculator. Not everyone is going to go to accounting school anyways. No need to learn to write properly, just skate by with C graded papers and let the people who got the A become the journalist or short story writer. No need to learn anything about science, you're not going to become a bio chemist or anything, right? No need to pay attention in economics, you'll never need to make sense out of the stock market. No need to learn anything about geography, you'll never move more than 20 miles away from where you grew up. Why should you care about all those little countries across the ocean? It's not like we live in a global society or anything. What were your thoughts when Russia went after Georgia? No, not the state... come on, pay attention. Why would schools make education easier? So that more of the students get better grades, which in turn makes the school look better. Then, being a "top" school, they will be in line for a higher budget. A really hard test may have only 10% of the grade within the 90 percentile. Make the test easier, and ta-da! Almost half the students are now in a higher percentile. With a higher budget, they can get new computers, hire more staff to reduce student to teacher ratios, ect. Making it a better school, right? The whole point of school, is to get people out of it to join the work force. How will the quality of the work force change as schooling becomes easier? Will the slack be picked up in college, or will it happen there as well? When will the wake up call happen to students, when they get to college and go "Gosh, this is hard." Or when they exit college and get to a job, only to realize they don't know what they're doing? Don't know about you guys, but I like well written and easy to read directions when I buy something in pieces. I'd like to know that my tax person was paying attention in class, or that they have been doing for 20 years and knew any and all changes each year. With technical or skilled trades, you really need to watch who is performing the service for you. Even something as simple as a haircut is a skilled, learned, trade. You don't want the stylist that played hooky on cutting day. When I was in high school, I was home schooled. So really I had no concept of what was going on with the other kids my age besides my friends. And after the fact when I entered the work force. I never got to use a calculator until well after Algebra 2. Learned to type with a covered key board so that I couldn't cheat and look. Learned writing through actual instructors since my mom knew the importance of it through her use of writing. She was forever writing papers and proposals for her Environmental work with the Sierra Club. Fast forward to the work force. I became a salon manager at the age of 19. I could work the computer, file documents, do inventory, place the stock orders, tally the sales, ect. But I could also perform all the required services, and fix those that other stylists screwed up. As well as train, and speak in an understandable manner to the staff. I came with all that ability, I learned it early through difficult and unforgiving schooling. With home schooling, at least in our family, there were no B students and there were no failing grades. You did it right or you did it again. I got real tired of doing it again. When I was in beauty school, it was the easiest thing in the world. I mean... the term "beauty school drop out" was hilarious to me, you had to be one dumb cookie to fail. But if you didn't pay attention in science, chemistry, ect... yeah, it could be plenty difficult to make sense of chemicals and their proper use and hazards. Lot's of things you need to know before you put double 40 lightener on a stranger's head that's paying you good money to make her blonde. She doesn't want to see the ends of her hair floating away on the wind of the blow dryer if you didn't do it right. But imagine how many stylists are out there who didn't really pay attention, who skated through, passed the state board test by the skin of their teeth, and are out there now with scissors in their hand ready to give you a hair cut or put dangerous chemicals on your head. Or auto mechanics, construction workers, tax preparers, dental hygienists, nurses, ect. Do we really want basic schooling to get easier? What impact is that going to have on all the industries not requiring extensive college? The issue is much deeper than adding spell check. It's in combination of everything else they've already made easier, and the future changes. And now you have to wonder if they went to a real school or an online school. I've never taken online courses, but something about an entire education being done in your pajamas is worrisome. Doesn't speak of the real world to me, and I find it hard that it will generate the right sort of employees. You can learn to be anything from a vet tech to a corrections officer in your pajamas.
