teechers can't spel?
from AntBlog701

teechers can't spel?

According to last night's Today Tonight and yesterday's The Australian, in a test earlier this year, not one of 40 Victorian primary school teachers could spell all 11 words.

What are those 11 words?
ex-am-plo-ri (serving as a desirable model)
kon-sh-an-sh-ous (taking care to do things carefully and correctly)
em-ba-ra-sing (red faced)
sub-te-ra-ni-an (existing)
men-ten-an-s (the process of keeping something in good condition)
ado-les (the period following the onset of puberty during which a young person develops from a child into an adult)
ex-ger-rate (to amke something seem bigger, worse or more important)
cus-tom-mer-ri (the way a person always behaves)
(the full spelling of "misc.")
pro-pri-a-tor (the owner of a business)
sub-ss-te-tut (to take the place of something else. replace)

To be hones, these words are hard to spell.

(keep reading for answer)

Here are the answers:
exemplary
conscientious
embarrassing
subterranean
maintenance
adolescence
exaggerate
customary
miscellaneous
proprietor
substitute

The surprising part is that primary teachers nowadays can't spell those words correctly.

"You can learn to read without knowing phenomics (the sounds that make up words), but when you spell, you have to have a good phenomic understanding to help spell words like said. "Unless you're taught that 'ai' as well as 'e' can make an 'eh' sound in words like said and again, you will spell said as 'sed'.

"But many teachers don't have that inherent knowledge,"

I admit that I don't have a good spelling myself, but I don't try to rely on Word's auto-correction. As I always tell Don that I don't speak English.

More story in Teacher failures spell student trouble (The Australian, 17 September 2007)