There is a popular belief among parents that schools are no longer interested in spelling. No school I have taught in has ever ignored spelling or considered it unimportant as a basic skill.

There are, however, vastly different ideas about how to teach it, or how much priority it must be given over general language development and writing ability. The problem is, how to encourage a child to express himself freely and confidently in writing without holding him back with the complexities of spelling

If spelling became the only focal point of his teacher’ s interest, clearly a bright child will be likely to "play safe". He will tend to write only words within his spelling range, choosing to avoid adventurous language. That’ s teachers often en courage the early use of dictionaries and pay attention to content rather than technical ability.

I was once shocked to read on the bottom of a sensitive piece of writing about a personal experience: "This work is terrible! There are far too many spelling errors and technical abilities in writing". But it was also a sad reflection on the teacher who had such feelings. The teacher was not wrong to draw attention to the errors, but if his priorities had centered on the child’ s ideas, an expression of his disappointment with the presentation would have given the pupi1 more motivation (动力) to seek improvement.