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In a recent article from The Washington Post, the author quotes a study that texting does not create poor spelling. I am not buying into that just yet. The kids texting today have had years of spelling/vocabulary tests and have that sense of history behind them.

Those findings, recently published in the journal Reading and Writing, suggest that parental worries that kids who use "chatspeak" will become bad spellers or never learn how to write well are unfounded. "Young people can compartmentalize their language," Varnhagen said. "They have language that they use on the playground and then school language. They know how to speak in classrooms without sounding like goofballs."

I believe that the jury is still out on this one. My recommendation would be to ask the language arts teachers and find out what they are seeing in writing samples throughout the year. A short spelling test with 40 students does not convince me that students can still spell after texting all weekend. The English language has been corrupted enough without including texting language!

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