I'd be willing to bet if your proposal somehow became the law of the land, our illiteracy rate wouldn't change a whit. It's not what is wrong with the American education system or the American student.
While on business in Korea, school children would constantly run up to me and practice their English skills. Based on watching their "teaching channels" on TV, they probably all spell very well. They're encouraged and, thus, motivated to learn it. Education is about getting educated there. Here it seems to be more and more about the lowest common denominator and the path of least resistance.
I'd be willing to bet if your proposal somehow became the law of the land, our illiteracy rate wouldn't change a whit. It's not what is wrong with the American education system or the American student.
While on business in Korea, school children would constantly run up to me and practice their English skills. Based on watching their "teaching channels" on TV, they probably all spell very well. They're encouraged and, thus, motivated to learn it. Education is about getting educated there. Here it seems to be more and more about the lowest common denominator and the path of least resistance.
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Yes, they spell very well indeed. As the Korean told me "You teach a six year old the shapes and the sounds of the letters, and she practices a little. After two weeks, you say a word, any word long or short (but not a hard word because there is no such thing.) She writes the word. If she misspells it, YOU have misspoken. Children have good ears! And we have the best alphabet in the world, courtesy of King Sejong the Great!" He was really proud, and grateful, nearly six hundred years later. Under the old writing system, a clumsy effort to adopt Chinese ideographs to spell Korean words, only a few courtiers could read and write. Sejong and his scholars studied the matter, devised the new alphabet, and gave it to the people, saying "This is for you, and it is good. Use it". In a couple of years everyone could read and write, and this made everyone very happy. Except the courtiers, who had foot long fingernails to show they never worked, and hated the new system because it took away their exclusive privilege.
So next time you're there, ask a Korean and I'll bet he tells that story, and doesn't forget it was Sejong -- the Great! And that they still remember him. Unless, of course, his family was courtiers, in which case he'll rant about the effort to dumb down a noble system...