Re: Let's try this again
Hey Kicker,
Congrats on your achievement. As I wrote in my post I just graduated from college with honors and I don't spell so well either. I guess people don't understand that much of writing is done on computers now and that it catches a lot of spelling errors. I don't know about you, but I've had to do so much writing that I am perhaps a bit more careless about using spell check when posting here than if I were using a word processor. Also, there are so many more requirements, technology-wise that were not required of previous generations. Some of the more basic elements get left behind as teachers try to balance adding more subject areas in the same amount of time.
Granny, to answer you question about how “If you were Suma cum laude, how come you can't spell?” there are a variety of reasons. I have been told by many reading specialist that highly intelligent people have problems spelling because the spelling rules are so capricious and don’t make sense. Ours is a hybrid language and the rules of spelling do not follow any rhyme or reason. One teacher pointed out to me that according to our reasoning “fish” could actually be spelled P-H-Y-C-H-E, which spells something else entirely. Spelling is also not a subject that is easily taught. Other than spelling books, it is basically learning words by rote and having good “pattern recognitions skills. Finally, one of the reasons I have learned to spell better is that I deplore getting corrected in public. I was always taught that this was rude and hurtful, and I know that feeling all too well by having my spelling ridiculed by other on boards and in chat. We all have different talents and I think being a good and considerate person is far more important than spelling correctly, though I would encourage people that don’t spell well to either use word check and have a dictionary to back it up (This is a definitely a case of “Physician, heal thyself)
By the way, you have obviously learned a few things in your lifetime, so I leave you with a great line that one of my favorite teachers told me...” Having a degree and having and education are two separate things. The first can contribute to the second, but one’s “education” embodies all then knowledge that you utilize. Some of the most “educated” people in the world didn’t have a college education. Albert Einstein was asked to leave college repeatedly because he was thought “not bright enough” to be at University. He did pretty well, and by the way, his spelling was notoriously bad
) and writes. I love to spend time with my 7 year old daughter, playing drums, cooking, and do my best to approach life with an, albeit wicked at times, sense of humor. 
Anyway, I did formerly call people on their spelling as a joke but found out I was hurting people's feelings so I quit. I just really wanted to understand the reason. When I first saw that post, I thought he/she was a foreigner. 
