You think vous care about spelling!

Want a sure way to raise a little controversy about computers in education? Tell people that you think that kids shouldn’t be spending so much time on spelling lessons in school. After all, what they really need is to be able to spell a word well enough that a word processor can help them correct it….

If you think that view is controversial here in the US, in France–where language is an important sign of national identity–the stakes are even higher. But even in France new media is making inroads. The “problem” of creative spelling in text messages has apparently been raised to the presidential level.

This from Nicolas Sarkozy in February:

Look at what text-messaging is doing to the French Language… If we let things go, in a few years we will have trouble understanding each other.

But what to do? C CHIC