Domestic Geek

I had an interesting discussion with my supervisor at work yesterday. I was lamenting how there are so many street names/address parts that the majority of people just can't spell correctly: Lincoln, Humboldt, Crescent, Reservoir, Washington and a multitude of others. I have to fix these spellings constantly or the software will not recognize them as valid addresses. She mentioned that the school kids that learned to read with phonics are generally poor spellers (herself included). At first I thought she was just using it as a cop-out excuse, but after doing some Googling today, I think she's correct.

I don't recall being taught to read, so I'm not sure what method was used on my class. I do remember seeing those "Hooked on Phonics worked for me!" commercials well after I was taught, though. I also read quite a bit at a young age, so I saw the English language written correctly all the time. Spelling counted back when I was going to class - something that wasn't as important with some teachers by the time I got out of college. I was appalled that even the English teacher at the school where I worked after college didn't care so much about spelling as long as students could get their thoughts onto paper. Scary.

Additionally, there's the spell checkers on our computers. There's no need to think about how to spell correctly when even web browsers suggest the correct way to spell words. Don't even get me started on texting abbreviations.