Posted on 06/03/2004 1:19:36 AM PDT by sarcasm
WASHINGTON — Protesters delivered a message yesterday to the national spelling bee: Enuf is enuf!
Members of the American Literacy Society picketed the 77th annual spelling bee, which is sponsored every year by Cincinnati-based Scripps Howard.
The protesters' complaints: English spelling is illogical, and the national spelling bee only reinforces the crazy spellings that they say contribute to dyslexia, high illiteracy and harder lives for immigrants.
"We advocate the modernization of English spelling," said Pete Boardman, 58, of Groton, N.Y. The Cornell University bus driver admitted to being a terrible speller.
Protester Elizabeth Kuizenga, 56, is such a good speller that she teaches English as a second language in San Francisco. She said she got involved in the protest after seeing how much time was wasted teaching spelling in her class.
Bee spokesman Mark Kroeger said good spelling comes from knowing the story behind a word — what language it comes from, what it means.
"For these kids who understand the root words, who understand the etymology, it's totally logical," he said.
The protesters contend that the illogical spelling of English words makes dyslexia more difficult to overcome and helps explain studies that suggest one in five Americans are functionally illiterate.
"If these people were able to read and write with a simplified spelling system, they would be able to fill out a job application, stay employed and stay out of prison," said Sanford Silverman, 86. The retired accountant was handing out copies of his book, "Spelling for the 21st Century: The Case for Spelling Reform."
Carrying signs reading "I'm thru with through," "Spelling shuud be lojical," and "Spell different difrent," the protesters drew chuckles from bee contestants.
"I can't believe people are picketing against something this ridiculous," said contestant Steven Maheshwary, 14, of Houston.
By day's end yesterday, 46 of the original 265 spellers remained for today's championship. The participants are competing for a top package of $17,000 in cash and other prizes.
Some of the stumpers yesterday were "phyllotaxy," "triboluminescence," "ziphioid" and "dacquoise."
The choice was deliberate and intentional to make my point.
You people will be spelling Colour as "Color" next
Or even worse Aeroplane as "Airplane"
Bloody colonials ; )
The choice was deliberate and intentional to make my point.
So was mine. What's your problem?
I was agreeing with you.
What's the matter that never happened before
and you don't know how to respond?
Frankily mi deer, I don't giva dammm.
the only mature voice in the crowd...
Spell checking systems are inadequate since they do not contain all words used in the English language. Moreover, they do not distinguish between a correctly spelled word and a word that is not what you meant ( for example to instead of too or even two). The reality is if you do not know how to spell you do not know the language. Keyboards used to be typewriters and to suggest that those put an end to the need for dictionaries is silly. Calculators were supposed to do away with the need for anyone to learn arithmetic ( your tables as it were). Fact is calculators are not always correct ( the dead battery syndrome) and one still needs to know arithmetic unless you prefer your money to be handled by someone who will steal you blind.
Dis iz a funy rtikle. iz ets series?
Whadda crock.
The protesters' complaints: English spelling is illogical, and the national spelling bee only reinforces the crazy spellings that they say contribute to dyslexia, high illiteracy and harder lives for immigrants.
"We advocate the modernization of English spelling," said Pete Boardman, 58, of Groton, N.Y. The Cornell University bus driver admitted to being a terrible speller.
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What would be great is if they were to create a new bureaucracy, the National Spelling Reform Commission, to handle the reform of the English language. The NSRC could employ 230,000 people and have a budget of $2.3 billion. Has Kerry promised this yet? I don't see why not. It could earn him a couple of thousand votes.
As with all bureaucracies, it could perform at best at a mediocre level and quickly outlive any perceived usefulness. But the liberals will cry foul if any member of the GOP even thinks about disbanding it... Ah, how politics sickens me. It's just so predictable.
What a bunch of loosers.
They are hughly mistaken.
"Phyllotaxy, triboluminescence,ziphioid and dacquoise" always causes me to stumble, too!
Actually, I give "through" about another ten years. In the normal evolutionary process of language, "thru" is taking over from "through". In normal business and social communication, nobody even bothers to correct it anymore. In ten years, "thru" will be an acceptable alternative spelling and in twenty years, it will be ubiquitous.
In thirty years, I will be the only one using "through", and people will look at me like I am a dinosaur. Some snot-nosed college punk will tell me I'm spelling it wrong.
like the kids of immigrants who keep winning spelling bees every year?
The Onion could have written this.
Well then. Let's get to the heart of the matter. Its those darn letters themselves that are the problem.
I propose that we return to a system of pictures only. No more dyslexia, no more illiteracy and no need to learn annoying languages like English. Even the Neanderthals could understand picture writting!
I demand metric spelling!! How about Euro-spelling? Instead of letters call them deciwords. Instead of paragraphs, kilowords. Books become megawords, a library a gigaword! A period willl be called a milliword.
We can standardize and all speak Espranto! At the UN! And no one will be more clever, more educated, more articulate than anyone else, though the Democrat is always more articulate than the Republican!
...it's not just spelling, but punctuation, capitalization, coherence,....
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