Unfortunately, the answer to the question "Is Spelling Important" is "yes".  Personally, I don't judge a person by their spelling skills or lack of spelling skills.  I think that spelling is a function of time spent reading and time spent reading is not a function of intelligence.  People who read a lot are good spellers.  So when I see consistent mispellings in someone's writing I may think that they have not read a lot but I do not view them as unintelligent.  Unfortunately, schools and society do not share my beliefs. Schools would rather have a student use the word "pretty" in an piece of writing 20 times than have them attempt (and possibly mispell) the words "gorgeous" or "breathtaking".  Children learn this at an early age and realize that the risk of mispelling words is less than the rewards of interesting writing.

I recently read a very interesting analogy about spelling by David Edelman (davidlouisedelman.com).  He compares spelling to windsor knots.  A windsor knot tie is virtually indistinguishable from a clip on tie but what happens when you find out someone is wearing a clip on tie?  You lose all respect for them and assume they are lazy.  Again, it's not fair but it's true.

I would argue that the same public opinion applies for appearance.  I would love to tell my sons to be themselves and get tattoos and piercing and society will not judge them and they will have the same opportunities as other men (in windsor knots) but that would not be the truth.  They will be judged by their appearance, it may not be fair but it's true.

Why not rewrite the rules of spelling?  Is it really too late?  Well yes, it is too late to rewrite all the laws of spelling but shifting the public opinion of spelling is a movable object.  Public opinions shift all the time and I think there will come a day when spelling is considerably less important.  First of all, technology alone is fixing most spelling errors as they happen.  PDA's and iPhones give their owners instant access to spelling references.  As text messaging gains popularity with children phonetic spelling (which is usually shorter and faster) is making a comeback.

There is actually a movement called the "Spelling Reform Movement" which aims to create alternate and acceptable spellings such as "gost" for "ghost".

How often have you encountered a misspelled word and not been able to decipher the meaning of the word or sentence?  Never.  You always know what the person was trying to convey so I have to ask you, what's the problem?  I pride myself in being a person that no one has ever written something to and felt the need to check it for errors.

Did you notice any misspellings in this blog and more importantly, did you judge me?