Educators should focus on importance of spelling

Editor,

I happened to read Henry

Kennison's diary in the SUB as part of the New Orleans exhibit to commemorate Hurricane Katrina. In it, he mutilates the English language in a terrible manner, correlating verbs and nouns incorrectly. I prefer not to generalize, but this may imply that the state of Louisiana needs to undergo major educational reform. However, this is not the worst case of it.

I've also read annoying messages written on some bathroom stalls, on which people spell words incorrectly. Those people ought to be ashamed of themselves, both for vandalizing public property and for their weak grammatical skills. We college students have absolutely no excuse for misspelling words.

What's happening to America's educational system? Even though we have some of the best universities in the world, I believe the U.S. should be an educational leader on every level of education, from preschool to college. An essential part of effective communication is spelling correctly, so this problem needs to be addressed and resolved.

Andres Saenz

UNM student