How come people can spell words properly?
I remember how we used to have spelling tests in school. They seemed a chore at the time, but they worked. At primary school we used to be made to copy ten or so difficult words three times in our notebooks each day and one would think that the modern teacher would welcome this system in order to have time to prepare things in class, but formal spelling drill seems to have gone by the board. Even in public exams candidates don’t lose marks for bad spelling and punctuation, as used to be the case. We were also encouraged to read. If you are an avid reader, spelling sinks into your system without your even being aware of it. Sadly, even the English literature syllabus has been “dummed down” for reasons varying from political correctness to the inability of victims of the modern education system to understand good works of literature. I am sad about it too.
