my friends, I am totally aware that dyslexia and other learning disabilities are NO joke, and I do not expect someone who has them to cope with spelling and grammar easily...but..I AM concerned with an attitude of "it isn't worth my time to try, or to, for Pete's sake, LOOK UP unfamilar words!

...a story:
I used to be a graduate teaching assistant (Philosophy) in one of those BIG classes in college,,(300+ students)...in order to expose them to a bit of what Philosophers did, we'd occasionally have visiting lecturers and offer extra credit points to students who'd attend and turn in a 1-2 page synosis of the lecture.

So..one day Prof. Roderick Chisholm was to speak. The subject revolved about Epistemology, and used Hericlitus' statement that "you can't step into the same river twice" as a theme...and a few days later I had about 100 little papers to grade,(about ½ of the submissions).

Here is a partial list of the Philosophers that my students told me that Prof. Chilson, Chissum, Chisom, Chisum, Chilsome...etc..referred to: ...Heraclitus, Ariolitus, Ariclides, Hericlides, Hericlydes, Periclitus, Pericles, Heroclitus, Heroclytus, Hera clites, Hariclidus, Heraklitos, Heraqitus, Hericlatus, Haricletes, Arclydas, Hericlytis, Haroclydas, Ericlidis, Airalidus, Erraclitus (I like that one!), Caraclitus, Peraclutus, Aeroclides, Procritic, St. Colitions, and....Aristotle!(spelled perfectly, and totally wrong!)

Professor Chisholm's name was freely available on flyers, and Hericlitus was in their textbook...they simply didn't LOOK!..and they didn't listen, and they guessed with no idea of what they were aiming for. Yep...some of those kids may well have had real problems, but many just did not care, and at that time I was not well equipped to teach 'caring'. Seems as though it is still a tricky thing to instill.