Did anyone else learn how to spell in three-letter increments?
As a child, whenever I’d ask my parents or teachers how to spell a word, they’d say, “X-X-X… Now look it up.” And I would grab one of the mammoth dictionaries I kept on a bookshelf to do just that.
I wonder if kids today are still given such instructions. Or is there a modern alternative?
Perhaps it’s: “X-X-X… Now Google it.”
2 Comments
Courtney Mroch
I don’t know how parents teach kids now, but I do know that 20 years I was appalled they were just letting kids spell things phonetically and not trying to get them to learn the right way to spell the word. My friend’s elementary-aged daughter at the time (I think she was in 2nd or 3rd grade) wrote me a thank you note riddled with misspellings. My friend had said, “If you need help interpreting, let me know.” And then said that’s how they’re taught to spell now. (Or at that time.) But when were they going to be taught the right way? And how confusing would that be? Because the daughter was super bright. She should’ve been a star speller!
THEN I graded high school essays a few years after that and YIKES! Again, you could tell the “sound it out to spell it out” philosophy was in full force. Even for the best writers. I learned similarly to how you did and by memorizing after looking up the definition in the dictionary.
Which, I have to admit, I have dictionaries and a thesaurus on my shelf but I use Google mostly. Only if my phone’s not handy or my computers powered off do I grab my hard copies. lol (And I love the dictionary function on my Kindle! I use that just about every time I read!)
Jade Walker
The Kindle dictionary feature has totally spoiled me. I also use it all the time.