h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A journal a day for the month of November. That would make Ms. L quite happy. I remember her seventh grade English class quite vividly. Mixed in with the various grammar exercises, spelling lists and incredibly long essays were the rules which were enforced more strictly than some of our state laws.

The rule above all other rules: NO SCRATCH OUTS, EVER!

Rule 1: No perfume or aftershave in the first three rows, please (allergies).

Rule 2: Quiet is not an option, it is a given.

Rule 3: You will use punctuation, proper spelling, and write in complete sentences, on EVERYTHING!

Eraseable pens did not erase well enough. Eventually, the paper would turn blue or black on the third or fourth round of erasing. Liquid paper was the only acceptable option. Although, her preference was 'do not make mistakes in the first place'. Liquid Paper back then was a bit different than the watered down odor free version available now. It was third after model glue and nail polish, in the early 1980's. One of her three page tests (essays mostly) would leave the class feeling a bit giddy or maybe it was the fumes from all 34 open bottles of liquid paper. She also sent home notes and progress reports to parents whether you were doing well or awful. It was a relief when the year ended.

The next year, I had a different teacher. Aside from her informing me that I have an archaic most correct way of pronouncing certain words such as thoroughly, it was an English class. It turned out after a bit of investigation (hers not mine), that those of us who used all the syllables had been taught to read at one of three very specific grade schools.

Ninth grade rolled around and much to my horror I had the same teacher as I'd had for seventh grade. The retail value of all the liquid paper flashed before my eyes. Most of us had gotten used to fume free air. Then, she said what equated to beautiful music 'No Liquid Paper, allergies. A single line through and I'll give you plain scratch paper for each test.'. The sun shone brighter.

That is until she said 'Five minutes in your journals before we move on.'. I wrote about stuff that happened, stuff I wanted to happen, stuff in books, mostly just stuff. She did not mention our notebooks would be collected for grading. My notebook passed. My journal had red ink notes in the margin such as 'This David, do I know him? He sounds very nice.', 'Oh dear, did I stay too long at the dance?' and 'don't worry, that bothers me too' and my favorite 'Who is the cutie in the divider poster?'. Thanks, Ms. L.

I had the same English teacher for 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. I picked up impeccable spelling and a real sense of proper grammar. Since then, my language skills have never had a chance to become lax, because I've been reading heavily ever since.

I read somewhere that you learn to spell a word when you see it in print somewhere.

It does help to see a word in print to remember the spelling or as I think of it, put the spelling to the sound. We had books in our house, lots and lots of books. Some of those books were quite old. I didn't realize it at the time that some of them had spellings that were unfamiliar because it was 'British English' and not simply old.

When we took spelling tests in school I spelled the word the way it was spelled in the list for the week. My older brother who read several Alistair MacLean novels (that belonged to our oldest brother) at a young age had problems with spelling because he saw no difference between color and colour or flavor and flavour etc.

We Americans are so time-conscious, aren't we? Having extra letters in common words slows us down as we dash through our days.