When Rational Ignorance Wasn't So Rational

As we discussed in class, it is just not rational to be 100% knowledgeable on every subject. Becoming 100% knowledgeable is very costly, and eventually, the cost of an additional unit of information way out ways the benefit. One subject that I lack knowledge on is spelling. Much like Professor Coppock, spelling is not something that comes naturally to me, and putting in the effort to memorize how to spell words just doesn't seem like a valuable use of my time and energy. In this day and age, not knowing how to spell has very little cost. One source in The Huffington Post however, claims that "the benefits of spelling are endless" and that it is instrumental to the English language. But still others claim the only benefit to spelling is "to understand writing, to aid communication and ensure clarity" and that there is "no additional reason, other than snobbery, for spelling rules" (Huffington Post). I would have to agree with the latter.  For example, as I've been writing this, my computer has been automatically checking my spelling and helping me out when I keep forgetting how many 'e's are in the word knowledgeable. However, not knowing how to spell was not always the cost-less cake walk it is today.

Back in 4th grade, not knowing how to spell was very costly. Spelling was a whole subject of its own on my report card. Now, if given a list of words to memorize and repeat back on a spelling test, I would have been fine. The problem though, was that we didn't have spelling tests. Instead, my teacher would just grade our writing from other subjects such as History or English for spelling. She expected us to have a much higher level of knowledge on spelling than I had because we were not given set words to learn. The possibilities for spelling errors were endless. As a result, I ended up with a C in spelling on my report card! I was so upset and had no idea what to do. The only solution seemed to be to become 100% knowledgeable in spelling. The problem? I had very important fourth grade things to attend to! I decided it was just too costly to learn how to spell. I didn't want to have to give up time playing outside or watching Spongebob. I still think I made the rational decision to stay ignorant, but I'm sure my 4th grade teacher would disagree.