Yet again this morning I was reminded of my Education Tutor at Scrapfield College of Education.She was called Kate Douet, and she made an enormous impression on us student teachers. She retired in 1969. I hope she enjoyed a long and happy retirement.

In one lecture, she was adamant that we must give boys and girls the same toys, we must talk to them in the same way, we must offer them the same opportunities. Thus the 'stereo-type male and female behaviours' would be eradicated.

I remember arguing with her fiercely. "Males and females are different right from the start. They are made differently. They respond to the same stimuli in different ways."

Of course generalisations in human beings are necessarily limiting. Each human is an individual. Unique.

But on woman's hour today, another 'expert' now affirming along with a tide of evidence, that I was right after all. Boys and girls respond differently to the same national curriculum. Jill Berry, president of the Girls School Association, was advocating single sex schools in order to promote the success of girls.

Having raised 3 sons during years when there was extra effort in the promotion of science, technology, and sport for girls, surely it's the boys who need to have their learning environments tweaked by government edict. Boys are lagging behind on almost all education fronts.

One step is to recruit more males into education, both at teaching and support level.

The next step could be to integrate a cognitive programme into the school day - the problem solving scenario is popular with most boys.

Maybe in another 30 years from now ....................

Well , late last night my husband called me in to listen to Word of Mouth on radio 4  - thankfully it was still available on listen again today. Masha Bell was discussing the link she sees between English conventional spelling (it's actually not at all conventional) and children who struggle to read.

Michael Rosen was quizzing her.
One thing she said " Spelling Bee is a buzz for a few talented spellers, and for the majority it's a real sting."

She also mentioned the beetroot face of a youngster who has just been laughed at by the class for a mispelling.

When I meet a teenager who has real problems learning to read and write, first I gain their trust. Then I ask them "When did you first know that you had a problem with reading?" Almost all youngsters proceed to tell of a specific 'beetroot' moment in their schooling. As they start their story with a few faultering words, the emotions begin to surface. The story gathers pace, and minute details begin to emerge from their memory. One common factor - The horror of being laughed at.

Shut down.

These are youngsters who, at Secondary school, tell me "Readings rubbish" and "Don't need to learn to read" and "My Dad can't read, and he's done ok".

Of course, reforming spelling is one change. Society needs many changes.

Having read again Masha Bell's website, and listened to her discussion with Michael Rosen, I am even more convinced that a more generous attitude to people who don't naturally find learning to spell gives them a buzz, would be a cheap way to raise reading standards nationally.

There is a natural progression for all learners of English literacy - read, write, spell. If spelling is put in front of reading, then catastrophe may follow.

That catastrophe starts as an emotional eruption - a beetroot moment.

It ends by locking a child with potential into bottom set. If they are not the languishing type, then beware volcanic eruptions with very expensive consequences.

So, 3 things

1.Take the pressure off spelling.
2.If a child gets laughed at for wrong spelling, deal with that moment very carefully.
3.Learning to read is the most important, learning to write phonetically is the second, and conventional spelling is the icing on the cake of literacy, and must not be put first.

Last summer I attended "The Cost of English Spelling", a conference organised by The Simple Spelling Society. I have just received the Conference Proceedings in booklet form.
Marsha Bell's englishspellingproblems.co.uk is a very useful website for anybody grappling with the complexities of my language, from native students who struggle with spelling to people learning English as a foreign language.
What I  hope it will show you is that sometimes the disabling factor is inherant in the environment, and not merely a disability that lies within your own or your student's 'psyche' or intelligence.

We hear a lot now about disabling environments. We hear about making all public areas accessible to wheelchair users. We hear much less about modifying the environmental barriers for those who struggle with learning to read and write.
Surely that is the greatest disability of all in our fast moving, knowledge based, communications driven society?

The Simple Spelling Society www.spellingsociety.org has been attempting to remove those barriers to literacy since 1908.
Currently the English language  relies on random letters representing random sounds in thousands of common words.For students with working memory problems, or with visual memory problems, or with sound discrimination problems, this random use of letters is a barrier to their learning. Usually the barrier is in place from the infant school.

Could we not also just begin to take a more systematic approach to spelling? Could we begin to modify the environment and remove barriers to disability that lock so many of our children into feelings of failure; feelings that cost them dear throughout their literate life?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7981478.stm
just listening to radio 4 'from our own correspondant' made me realise yet again how families with special needs bypass and ignore political and cultural differences for the sole goal of helping their child in the best way they can.
The link is to a programme by Katya Adler, a journalist,  who went to Doha with the aim of getting to understand the culture etc. She tells how she was frustrated by her failure to get to know any Qatari families, or to step inside one of their homes.
Well, I did.
In fact I was welcomed into two Qatar homes, one of which was a member of the ruling Al Thani family.
As a Portage enthusiast, I see parents in the role as their child's first educator. When I suggested that I should visit children in their own home the Principal of Sunbeams Kindergarten, Joanna, was surprised and at first sceptical. However , she agreed to take me, and what wonderful welcome I received. Listening to Katya Adler, reminded me again what a privelage my work in Qatar had been, and how special needs brings together parents in a way that maybe nothing else can.