I recently received some feedback about a spelling error on my website. A simple thing really, easily fixed. I can appreciate on some level that there are individuals who see these things and hold them to a high degree of importance. It's obvious to anyone who has spent time in the system that is english built within the structure of the British empire that grammar and spelling are important. The feedback was such that it was meant to be helpful but also categorized as “if you don't fix this spelling error it will ruin your credibility.” I found myself immediately questioning this statement and even taking offense to it, not in a how dare you kind of way but in a “really!?” kind of way. So let me expand.

I like words and grammar, feel that there is power in how and why we phrase things, in the stories we tell each other and how we tell them. I also have been in a deep questioning space about how we wander through the world and form our judgements, critiques, thoughts, and habits. I'm continually looking for kinder and more curious ways to process my life as I walk through it in this complex machine that is my body and mind and I've been questioning such spaces constantly of late.

Our society holds grammar and spelling to such a high value that we can make statements like “if you spell this wrong, you will lose credibility”, so much so that it has become an entry point into how we make contact with a complete stranger. So, an individual sees a spelling error on my website and in an act of care points it out to me, stating clearly that this spelling error can ruin my credibility.

Is my credibility so tenuous in this culture that a simple spelling error will ruin it? Why? Have you ever inquired about the reasons why this is an important tennant to follow? A phonetic spelling is less valued than a “proper” spelling, but why? Who is/are the person or persons who have defined this proper spelling? What makes them more of an authority on sound and it's depiction through the symbols we use to denote sound than myself? Why is this rule set important to uphold?

Let me explore this a little with you as I've been working the idea of decolonizing many aspects of my being, this being one of them. I grew up with many people in my family being barely literate in english, dalkelh being their first language and dalkelh being a language that is completely oral. Their english sentences were ill formed, grammatically incorrect, pronounced with non english accents and almost never written. When written it was simple, often riddled with mistakes, and sometimes viewed by myself in an arrogant, negative, and judgemental fashion. As a man who is now dismantling much of what he has been told is right, I am now questioning the motives behind rulesets like proper spelling and grammar. Don't get me wrong, it's an interesting set of rules based in creating understanding and relaying information in a way that has a broad sensibility to it, but does that make it the right way? It certainly can't be the only way. It's just one way out of many, many possibilities to share information, no!?

Let's for arguments sake say that I have a completely non literate person look at my website. They will probably recognize the imagery of my art as something they can relate to in the world around them, especially if they come from a culture with knowledge of bears, wolves, and cougars. The words though will have no meaning to them at all, spelled correctly or incorrectly. It will have absolutely no effect on what they think of me because it's not understandable without the learned symbol ruleset. So, our judgements related to language are built into our understanding of the rules that have been agreed upon, the english language creating a significant judgement around how we spell certain words.

Let's explore this from another angle for a minute. Let's say we are children in school learning this ruleset, an experience many of us have had. There were the kids who were good spellers and readers, those who were so so at it, and those who were bad at spelling, grammar, and reading. Built into this system of learning these rules is also an underlying system of value wherein if you can understand and follow the rules well, you are judged to be good, valuable even. If you fail to be able to follow these rules you are judged to be bad, stupid, and even flawed. Built into this system of “getting it right” is the ridicule, the grading, the quality control and the high potential of feeling less than, the high potential for self hate, and the high potential for feeling you have to work that much harder to fit the mold of what is ok and what is not ok in this ruleset.

There's almost never the question of “how do I make this individual shine” or exploring the idea of this individuals relationship to this set of rules. Instead it follows the premise of you're doing it wrong, fix it and do it right. This set of learning principles builds out a society that holds judgement, right and wrong, black and white, in its highest echelons and punts creativity and working outside the norms to the bottom. This is our modern education system, flat and uninspired. It's a beautiful set of rules for some and worth exploring and having some of those who are gifted at it or interested in it work it's edges and hold it as something that's a real work of art. But it's also deeply entrenched in judgement, competition, and a lack of being curious about an individuals strengths and unique potential. It's very colonized. It has expectations and value judgements that leaves those who spell poorly, speak poorly, and can't read on the fringes and valued less. A university degree will get you places in this culture. Misspelling one word will have people think you will lose credibility. My question to that is why? Why is it so important for us to spell right? Why does the person who spells “correctly” versus phonetically hold the hammer or the right to call the misspeller out? Why do so many of us object to different spellings and grammar? Is it because we were told there is only one right way?

Well, I object. I object to the idea that a misspelled word will ruin my credibility. I object to the ruleset that ensures this. I object to the fact that one misspelling in my resume will keep me from getting considered for the job. I object to the assumptions that come with the ruleset of proper english. I object to the qualification of intelligence and properness that comes with doing it just right. I don't object to the fact that these rulesets help establish a baseline for understanding, but I object to the judgements that are inherent in these systems, especially when they're steeped in what is right and what is wrong and even more especially when these systems of judgement have been used to oppress and destroy other wisdom traditions, as has happened in this country, “educating and civilizing” indigenous people.

So, I appreciate the sentiment behind trying to be helpful with a misspelled word on my website. I really do. But I completely reject the idea that it will harm my credibility. In this society, it actually might have that effect. As I question more of the deep ruts within this culture though I find myself railing against the qualities that make it oppressive, judgemental, and hurtful to some who exist in this society of humans alongside me. Decolonizing is hard and mysterious work.