Laminack Article (sort of)

I agree with a lot that Laminack says about spelling.  As I learned in my American lit class, it’s really all a matter of perspective; perspective of the writer and what the audience (the teacher in most cases) sees as important.  Is it in the idea or the presentation of that idea from which the value is derived?  In my opinion, the genius certainly lies within the idea when writing.  Now, there are many presentations of the writings that can further and better express the author’s idea, but it is the superficial things such as spelling and comma splices that we should judge a writer on.  Yes, there would be certain need for intervention if a third grade writer is still writing in a way that is indistinguishable.  But we cannot lose focus of what the overall focus of what that intervention should be for.  Should it be for the aesthetic reasons so that everything is proper, or is it for the goal of giving a mind one other way to display its insights and ideas?  However, it is hard to not worry about how children present their writing because we know all too well that in the real world there is value and judgment placed on how proper our writing is.  I myself had to trash a very sincere thank you letter just the other day because I realized after writing it that I had misspelled two words.  I feel the second card I wrote contained less meaning because I was not thinking about the great thing that person had done for me while I was writing it.  Instead I was focused on spelling, punctuation, and yes, handwriting.  I think that is why I never write second drafts of poems.  The first draft is where the meaning is.  When you start editing the second draft is when you begin to try and make your thoughts, feelings, and emotions suitable to be seen and they are no longer in their raw state. Well, I think I had better sign off now before this stream of consciousness writing leads me to talk about what I will be having for dinner tonight.  But that last sentence does lead me to one last thought.  I don’t know how to spell consciousness so thank goodness for the word autocorrect so that I do not have to worry about spelling while I am typing.  Although, I did just spell it correctly the second time.  Maybe the first time was a typing error.  The sentence that begins with “Although” is a sentence fragment.