Spelling and Writing

There is a popularbelief among parents that schools are no longer interested in spelling.Noschool I have taught in has ever ignored spelling or considered it unimportantas a

basic skill.

There are , however, vastly different ideas about how to teach it , or how much priority（优先）it must be given over generallanguage development and writing ability.The

problem is,how toencourage a child to express himself freely and confidently in writing withoutholding him back with the complexities of spelling?

If spelling becomesthe only focal point of his teacher's interest,clearly a bright child will belikely to"play safe".He will tend to write only words within hisspelling

range,choosing toavoid adventurous language .That's why teachers often encourage the early useof dictionaries and pay attention to content rather than technical ability.

I was once shockedto read on the bottom of a sensitive piece of writing about a personal ex-perience."This work is terrible!There are far too many spelling errors andyour

writing is illegible（难以辨认的）."It may have been a sharpcriticism of the pupil's technical abilities in writing,but it was also a sadreflection on the teacher who had

omitted to read theessay,which contamned some beautiful expressions of the child's deepfeelings.The teacher was not wrong to draw attention to the errors,but if his

priorities hadcentered on the child's ideas,an expression of his disappointment with thepresentation would have given the pupil more motivation to seek improvement.Theexpression"play safe"probably means"______".

A.to rflte carefully

B.to do as teacherssay

C.to usedictionaries frequently

D.to avoid usingwords one is not sure of