Let them express themselves!

Mrs. Cloyd Farquhar, a worried and concerned mother in Mansfield, Ohio, writes:

Dear Grammer Genious,

I'm worried about what they're telling my son Edgar in school. He's in the second grade and they're not teaching them any spelling. They call it “whole language.” You should see what they let him write – like, he'll write “mi muthr is reel nais she givs me ays crem” and things like that, and they give him an A on it and won't correct it at all! His teacher Miss Kaminsky says the idea is to let them express themselves in any way they want to, because if you keep imposing rules on them it will stifle them and they won't express themselves.

Does that make sense to you? What do you think?

By the way, we LOVE your column!

Aylene Farquhar (Mrs. Cloyd Farquhar)

Manfield, Ohio

Dear Mrs. Farquhar,

Miss Kaminsky is exactly right. The important thing is to give the children a way to express their feelings. Spelling rules come way down the list of things to worry about.

-- The Grammer Genious