The work load of teachers would become vastly smaller if they did not have to keep correcting spelling mistakes which pupils commit only because English spelling is often illogical. More importantly, far more pupils than now would leave school better educated if they did not have to spend so much time on memorising quirky spellings for at least 4,219 common words (listed on my EnglishSpellingProblems blog). Irregular spellings like 'blue, shoe, flew, through, to, you, two, too' waste precious learning time which pupils at the lower end of the ability range could do more of for all subjects.
Worse still, many irregular spellings overlap and spell more than one sound, like the letter o (on – only, once, other, won, woman, women, womb). This ensures that many pupils take a very long time to learn to read too, with 1 in 5 never managing to do so properly. And nobody can learn much without learning to read first. English spelling incurs many costs which most people fail to consider. It is in dire need of some tidying up.
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Worse still, many irregular spellings overlap and spell more than one sound, like the letter o (on – only, once, other, won, woman, women, womb). This ensures that many pupils take a very long time to learn to read too, with 1 in 5 never managing to do so properly. And nobody can learn much without learning to read first. English spelling incurs many costs which most people fail to consider. It is in dire need of some tidying up.