Spelling

Proper spelling is essential in life. It should be a complete embarrassment to any high schooler or adult that cannot spell. In elementary school, I missed two words throughout my five years and even when I missed those words I was ashamed and crumpled up the paper to throw it in the garbage. Maybe I was just a perfectionist, but looking back, it amazes me that students were okay with missing words week after week. The best solution to this problem would be to test the words again on the kids who weren't successful the first time through. The only issue I could see with that is time, but if a teacher refuses to try to help their children learn then they aren't very good teachers. During senior seminar the other day, we had a discussion about the current way that public schools are being run. When students miss words on a spelling test it isn't likely that anyone is going to hold them accountable for knowing those words in the future, resulting in a problem later in their educational career and even into their jobs after. This is true for any subject. In math, the students that get 95% on their tests are still missing 5% of what they have learned and this continues to build to the point where they may struggle later in higher math courses. Spelling, along with any other material should be mastered by the students before the teacher continues on to a new spelling list or subject matter.