Spelling is ellitist

If you don't know how to spell, people think you are stupid. At the very least, they think that you're lazy and sloppy, which in some cases (think job application) can be worse.

So, how does one learn to spell? Uncounted hours of hard mental labor. Each and every one of us has spent thousands of hours (count them) learning how to spell. Our spelling system is unesesarily complex, making it hard, slow work to learn to use it correctly. We have achieved some equality by giving everybody a chance to learn this esoteric branch of kowledge for free, under the guidence uv trained professionals in our public schools.

Wharfinger is incorrect. Reading a lot is not sufficient for skill in spelling. This I say from direct expirience. Throughout my childhood I read more than most people, and I still do so now. I am a very poor speller. Reading is an inexact task--in most cases you need only see a few letters in a word to reconise it. Spelling takes exact and specific memory of each of a 100,000 words. I have not yet discovered how one does this, but it is not through any amount of reading.

We still have people mispelling many words, because as one moves up in education, one is constantly given new, quirkier words to learn. If one stops learning these inconsistent irregularities, one will be seen as stupid, undereducated, and lazy, either in life in general, or in ones field of specialization.

The knowledge of 'correct' spelling is inconsistent enough that it requires constant upkeep. Learning the basic rules can take you only so far. There are exceptions to every rule, and you are expected to remember them all. (Or rather, the person who remembers the most gets to look down on everybody else).

Allow me to point out that typos are due to sloppiness, and are a different issue from spelling.

Our system of spelling is elitist. While it is not as serious a problem as racism, sexism, or creedism, lack of initiation into our spelling system can cost you a promotion, or a job.

The situation could be made better by eliminating some of the kinks and quirks of which our language abounds. It would not be hard, and it would hurt no-one. To reassure Coby, we would not need to give up having standardized spellings.

We will use our pitiful, inefficient system of spelling for the rest of this decade, if not this century.

We are stupid.

And ellitist.

As a strong speller and as a teacher, I think sometimes we often assume that those who can't spell well are just lazy. This is really unfair, because consistently spelling correctly requires an enormous amount of mental energy on the part of most people. For me, spelling always came extremely effortlessly, and I always thought that people who had trouble with spelling were just careless. But now, being exposed to the writings of others, particularly teenagers, I see that spelling well, especially in idiosyncratically written languages like English or French, is very difficult. Our brains are hardwired to process verbal language, but associating written marks with sounds and then with ideas is a cognitive skill, which is independent of language itself. Spelling was decided upon by literati/cognoscenti in a time when literacy was the province of the elite. A system designed by elites to be used by elites is very often elitist, even if it wasn't meant to be.

Other languages don't have spelling issues, like Italian or Spanish. Very often, there is only one possible way to spell a word, and only one possible way to pronounce an unfamiliar word encountered in a written form. Does this mean Italians and Spaniards are more intelligent and conscientious? Certainly not! Their spelling system was purposefully streamlined to make it easy. Spelling should be a tool to aid us, not a sacred cow to torture children and adults with.