CN U rd ths easly? If so, then mabe speling dose'nt mater. Spel ene wey u wont an it wil be olrite. Most of us think otherwise. Wading your way through poorly spelled stuff might be possible but, as any examiner will tell you, it's not just tiring, but always quite hard to work out what people mean. Bad spelling and poor grammar cause confusion.

The latest blow to correct spelling has been in tests for 14-year-olds, where even in English - English! - spelling is not to count for much any more. Which is a bit like saying that maths doesn't matter in an arithmetic exam and you can answer your French paper in Spanish. Or Double Dutch. Do we really think that little of our children?

Respect is the buzz word at the moment. And maybe we should have a bit more respect for our children's ability to cope with hard work - instead of saying that spelling's too hard for them.

Increasingly, we seem to be underestimating our children's capacities to cope. If subjects are too hard, we just make them easier. If a pass mark is to high for too many to reach, we just lower it. It is the most dreadful slur on our children, who are rarely given the chance to stretch themselves, show what they can do. Oh Miss Bassett, where are you now?

Miss Bassett was one of my primary school teachers. She taught 49 of us, squashed up three to each cramped double desk, and 48 of us passed the 11 Plus. The 49th passed the entrance to a public school.

Miss Bassett had great respect for our abilities and a firm belief that we could achieve what we wanted. If we didn't have enough natural talent to be good at English or maths or whatever, then the answer was simple - we just had to work harder. She knew we could do it.

Her faith in us was tremendously empowering. Our books were a mass of corrections in fierce red ink but we were never humiliated, always encouraged, spurred on in a spirit of hard work and good humour.

Best of all, she gave us faith in ourselves and our ability to control our own lives. We didn't blame anyone else, couldn't blame anyone us. It was all up to us.

Spelling and grammar mattered, said Miss Bassett, because if we could master those we would be the equal of anyone in the land. No-one would look at out letter or our application form and sneer - because there would be nothing to sneer at.

She also, incidentally, taught us to speak properly, for exactly the same reasons. No wonder, despite some pretty abysmal backgrounds, we were a confident, high achieving, well-spoken lot.

Miss Bassett has long since gone to the great classroom in the sky but there are plenty of other teachers of her calibre around today. Sadly, they are outnumbered voices battling in a climate that is too quick to remove the stumbling blocks, to make things easier for children. Miss Bassett made us think we could achieve whatever we wanted to. Stumbling blocks were just challenges to make it more interesting on the way. Making things easier was just for softies.

And that's what I call real respect.

THE Office of Fair Trading is taking a closer look at the time banks take to clear cheques. Not before time. Yorkshire Bank recently took eight days to clear a cheque I paid into my account.

Yet when I wrote a cheque for a credit card bill, they managed to whisk that money out of my account in just two days. What a surprise.

GERMAN mother Maria Brunner refused to pay a parking fine because the alternative was a spell in prison. She had, she said, demanding children and a lazy husband and a few days away from them, even in jail, would be the perfect holiday.

No, of course we wouldn't dream of it but gosh, you can see where she's coming from, can't you?

I HAVE an old hooded top which I used wear for walks down the lane and early morning trips to the gym. It's warm and cosy and comforting. But now apparently it makes me a threat to society and could get me banned from shopping malls.

Must dig it out again - it could do wonders for my street cred.

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