Stirring up Spelling "Old Wives Tales": Promoting BAD Pedagogy

Y'all. I started a Facebook fight. I didn't mean to. But the exchange just points out WHY the post was needed in the first place. Practitioners that I know - the ones that read and employ research - had some nice things to say:

... Thank you for this post...

And then things went south. One of my former students even weighed in. Ermergersh. That was cool.

This was from a former student. Pretty proud as punch of her. She's even been a Teach for America award winner. 

So History of English class is NOT what teaches us how to TEACH spelling.

And I'd like to point out that Terry Howell is one of the smartest people I know. He's an engineer and has presented and published ALL OVER the WORLD! And he understands the bugaboos of spelling complexity. 

And then the post below. I was going to be quiet and just let it go. Y'all - I love all of these people. I don't want to hurt their feelings or call them out. But we are perpetuating BAD pedagogy to future generations! STOP IT.

And then there's THIS: Yes. we KNOW better. Let's DO better.