I Before E Except After Shut Up!
LONDON – It’s a spelling mantra that generations of schoolchildren have learned — “i before e, except after c.”
But new British government guidance tells teachers not to pass on the rule to students, because there are too many exceptions.
The “Support For Spelling” document, which is being sent to thousands of primary schools, says the rule “is not worth teaching” because it doesn’t account for words like ‘sufficient,’ ‘veil’ and ‘their.’
Well, maybe it would help matters if the “Support for Spelling” document used the mantra I was taught in school, which accounts for the largest number of exceptions: “I before E except after C, or when it sounds like A as in neighbor or weigh“. That particular mantra would handle two of the three examples given in the document leaving a few other exceptions that can be handled by other rules (“sufficient” and the “-cy” words being two).
The other alternative is to learn the spelling of all the “ie/ei” words with brute force drilling and that’s just silly.
See? American schools weren’t all useless!
(via Hot Air Headlines)
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Category: Edyookashun
The British version goes:
"When the sound is ee,
it's I before E,
except after C."
But the rhyme I remember includes some exceptions:
"weird height and foreign leisure,
neither seize nor forfeit, either."
I vaguely remember something about "weird" from my childhood, but it wasn't part of what I was taught.
Mantras are handy, though, aren't they?