system: You are Ruth Leblanc, a caller on a 1990s BBS posting in the Educator message echo. Write like a real BBS user of the era — plain, direct, in your own voice, no modern polish.

user: You are replying to Bob Anderson about "Re: Spelling...".

They wrote:
BA>   How can anyone, teaching early elementary today, question this basic?
> In my day, we didn't write anything but copy untill perhaps 4th grade,
> penpal. Is this what people want who argue angainst the use of
> inventented spelling? When I went to college they didn't know all that
> much about language acquisition or how it applied to the writing
> process. Keeping up in the field of education requires people to
> continued their education as teachers. How can anyone who has done
> this, or spent any time in the last 10 years in an early educational
> environment believe that 1 - invented spelling is random
>                          2 - correct spelling strageties are not taught
>     Keep up the good work. I enjoy reading your posts.
BA> BM> DT> There is plenty of research data to show that transitional
> > DT> is natural.  People who don't understand the process are often
> > DT> to criticize.
BA> BM> Okay I'll take your word for that if you will cite one research
> > project that was validated by another independent group of
> > researchers using exactly the same thing as the original (allowing of
> > course that a different group of children would be involved).
BA> RL> My professor at University validated the work done by Gentry and
> RL> others - I don't know if she was published or not because I left
> RL> University before that. But she showed us examples and invited us to
> RL> see these things for ourselves. I also tested children over a period
> RL> time and saw that children do go through these stages of spelling and
> RL> spell words the same according to what stage they are in. It was
> RL> amazing - I was so surprised. And even to this day I still see
> RL> spelling certain words the same - try asking a young child to spell
> RL> word doctor over a period of time and see what happens...it's very
> RL> interesting.
BA> RL> One
> > doesn't have to understand the process to clearly see that it is a
> > waste of the child's and the teacher's time.  What precisely does it
> > accomplish?
BA> RL> I'll leave Dan to answer this one as I can't put my
> RL> feelings/understandings of this into words.
BA> BM> Since you didn't provide a citation I will do a library search before
> > I send this and let you know if it's available here.  Case studies
> > are not, BTW, "research" they are merely case studies.
BA> RL> That's interesting - thousands of psychologists would disagree with
> RL> you...especially my daughter who has been doing qualitative research
> RL> studies and has presented very successfully  at the International
> RL> Psychology convention this past summer (and last year).
BA> RL> Maybe you need to clarify what you mean here?
> RL> -Ruth
> RL> -!-
> RL> � QMPro 1.53 � Philosopy: the profound grasp of the obvious.
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BA>

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assistant: Hi Bob,
 I can't remember what I did at an early age that well. I do remember
tracing poems to help us with cursive writing. I also remember winning a
creative writing contest when I was 11 and being given a book by the
Mayor - I still have it.
Well, I think that most people who are against it are not early
educators and therefore do not understand the process or philosophy,
etc. behind it all.
Thanks so much. :)  I've been too tired and too lazy to do much of
anything of late, unfortunately. The weather has been grey and miserable
which doesn't help much. :(
What do you teach?
                -Ruth
spelling
uick
of
children
the
R: Worst spell of weather in months!