It’s Not Just Your Imagination: Spelling is Getting Worse
If you’ve noticed a decline in attention to correct spelling everywhere, you’re not imagining things. Spelling is getting worse. I don’t have any empirical evidence for this belief, but as an inveterate editor of restaurant menus (or is it “menues?”) and other artifacts, I’ve seen spelling get progressively worse.
So I’m not surprised to read that a new study on the digital family sponsored by Nickelodeon reveals this:
Being a good speller is no longer felt necessary by 27 percent of parents and 21 percent of kids. Twenty-six percent of parents and 25 percent of kids believe it’s no longer necessary to be able to use a printed dictionary. The use of sites like MapQuest and Google Maps makes 20 percent of parents and 21 percent of kids think map skills on paper are no longer necessary.
Not too surprising. Let’s put this in perspective: a couple of generations ago, if I’d lived where I do, I would have needed to know a lot of skills that I don’t need now. Like how to cut down a tree, for example. On the other hand, to work effectively within an organization like mStoner and for most other businesses, one needs exceptional communications skills. The ability to spell is fundamental. So parents (and kids) need to be reminded-apparently pretty often!-that spelling is not just a trivial skill and that learning the difference between witch and which is still essential.
Nickelodeon also learned that 82 percent of teens 12-14 use the web. When kids stopped using the Net for ten days, “many noticed schoolwork became a bigger challenge. Parents had to help children by taking them to the library and sometimes conducting the research on the Internet for their children. In most cases, more time was required to complete homework assignments.” More, here.
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