Spells like lean spirit

At the risk of being crucified for every future error on this blog, I was indignant this morning at Metro's story on schoolchildren being made to abandon spelling tests in case they find them distressing.

Perhaps we should not interview people for jobs any more because they might cry, and perhaps I should tell people their work is amazing when it's below par.

Competitiveness is part of life and certainly part of the world of work. And spelling (plus, er, a basic grasp of English) is fundamental to a PR or journalistic career. We don't want kids turning out like Rambos of punctuation or arithmetic, but the ability to spell well is driven, I think, by being tested at school and wanting to do well at those tests.

School should help you to identify what you're good at and where you can improve - areas where you'd be wise to invest more effort to compensate for any lack of natural talent. My own experience was no different - perennial girly swot at English, typically bottom of the class at needlecraft (remember the evil-looking patchwork turtle do you, teacher with the big hair and thick glasses?).

If British children are going to come into the business world devoid of the ability to compete and the ability to spell well, we'll have a labour market like football clubs - flooded with talent from elsewhere, where the desire to win and succeed is questionably greater. Not that that would necessarily be a bad thing in itself. But as a taxpayer I'd be distressed (I might even weep uncontrollably, bless me) at the thought of what I'm shelling out for educating a generation who risk being sod all use to industry.