Why do people struggle to spell school?

[purplepoppy]

The local news has just ran a story of contractors painting the word "shcool" on the road. However this isn't a one off, all around the world you can find the identical story, the word school incorrectly spelt on roads and signs.

So why do you think it's a reoccurring problem? Are people simply dumb or is it more complicated?

People are dumb

It's got a secret hidden meaning

They're trying to be funny

They're sending messages to passing ufos

[Anonymous]

I suspect there are a lot of things going on here.

The first of which is to simply whether it even is common or not?

It is the sort of mistake which when made you are ALWAYS going to hear about it, so there is an inherient confirmation bias or similar affect going on here.

Writing on a road is also clearly different to writing with a pen or indeed writing on a computer; there are mistakes which I make while typing that I would NEVER make with a pen.

I'm not sure how comprehensive this list is but there do not appear to be many words which begin 'sch' according to this helpful word game cheat sheet so if you are the sort of person who struggles and resorts to guess work the numbers are absolutely not on your side:

https://www.morewords.com/words-that-start-with/sch

There is also a selection bias at work here because the very nature of this physical 'blue collar' work means that there is a much greater chance of the person having weak language skills or even language problems like dyslexia and that is assuming they are even native English speakers. For the most part this sort of work does not require language, it requires you do be able to dig a fucking big hole in the ground while simultaneously not being run down by all the people who can't or do not care to drive their cars properly.

Anyone who has ever done a DIY project will know just how easy it is to make seemingly very simple and obvious mistakes.

Humans are quite simply not as sophisticated as they appear to be, that's why shows like 'the crystal maze' exist, the moment you take someone out of their familiar environment with their comfortable learnt behaviours, behaviours which they didn't even 'work out' the first time by the way they COPIED someone else by the way and you will see just how difficult 'simple' things really are.

If you don't already know to 'apply a constant gentle but firm pressure while rotating part A 90 degrees clockwise' for example then good luck figuring that shit out.

I would put strong money down that a majority of the people who are laughing away at these sign writers would quickly commit a similar error when tasked with performing unfamiliar work.

How many of you, who have never done it, for example, know which way to turn a threaded fixing like a bolt or screw?

Ok, and can you still do it when you are upside down and the thing is back to front and you can see it?

For reference the easy to remember saying is 'righty tighty, lefty loosey' by the way.

[BoobSlayer]

Yes, but as Rick Astley says "You know the rules and so do I." Operating under the assumption that both parties know the rules, the meaning behind breaking them is quite clear. Especially when one considers the simple act of painting 5 letters on the road. It's an intentional violation designed to test whether the community is as caring and loving as they profess to be. Just as an Internet troll might test your limits, and thus the truth or falsity behind the stated proposition that "GaG is a caring and loving community." Well, one wonders, how caring and loving is it really to refer to members of your community as "trolls" in the first place? By inciting their hatred, you are in fact, exposing their utter hypocrisy. In other words, school is not cool, but painting giant letters on the ground is, because it is art.

[BoobSlayer]

I think there's a secret meaning. It's like saying, I hate school so much I will spell shcool wrong and use bad grammar in front of English people. Rick Astley burned his school down, according to this documentary.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/I1gNbVv-rsg

[1073sucks]

issue really goes back to c.1300 when the person who invented the word schola/scholē, decided to throw in an H without sound to confuse people. The H was actually dropped precisely for this reason of the unnecessary silent h to scōl/scole but some "genius" decided to throw it BACK IN THERE later! Fast forward to today, people who don't write this word often KNOW there's an H thrown in there and they KNOW it's near the beginning so then they just throw it in there however it falls with hopes that it fell in the correct place.

[KostasKouvalis]

That's actually really funny.😂😂😂 Thanks for that cool little factoid. I'm assuming it originated from Old English

[1073sucks]

@KostasKouvalis lol no problem. the romans borrowed it from the greeks and old English is when they took out the needless h, but somehow they managed to throw it back in there :D

[Anonymous]

Dyslexia maybe. Could be tired or just not paying attention.

[mstbooblover]

Never heard of anyone having problems with the word "school", but the pictures obviously prove otherwise. I see two possible explanations: 1. Dyslexia. 2. A pronounciation misunderstanding. Just read loud out "shcool" in English, and you'll get the picture. Actually in Flemish dialects and in German "sch" is pronounced "sh".

[molonski2]

They possibly should take on American spelling " Skool " that would probably fix the problem , sadly I can't get a Z in there somewhere , it needs a Z.

[purplepoppy]

Zkool

[molonski2]

Problem solved :) Szkool? even
yours in essence is Zeeee Kool , which is a kinda nice name.

[KostasKouvalis]

Because y'all decided to put a bunch of silent letters in the English language

"SKOOL"

[purplepoppy]

H isn't silent in the original Greek skholḗ. It becomes Iskol in ancient briton turning to ysgol in (Welsh for phonetic reasons but pronounced the same) and skol in cornish. What I can't work out is where the OO comes in. Most languages are close to the original spelling

[docster]

That is pretty bad. Reminds me of the time an ambulance was behind me (not on a call). It was supposed to have the word 'Ambulance' written backwards on the front so it could be read in the rearview mirror. They had spelled it 'Amublance'.

[OfMiceandMen]

The power of suggestion... perhaps they need to go back to SHCOOL.

[LiamJHayden]

Maybe the person went here:

[Lliam]

Equal opportunity jobs for people who didn't graduate.
Stpo sahming dyselxics.

[Brainsbeforebeauty]

🤣🤣🤣

[StormChaser838]

the message is they did not spend enough time in " SCOOL ". !!!

[BlissfullyCurSed]

Because L1 speakers of the English language are dumb. 🙃🙃🙃

[exitseven]

Yes, there was a sign made by teachers that spelled school the same way.

[Legendarylegacy13]

People are dumb but we all have had a first day of work.

[CuriousMufuxka]

What in the stool are you talking about? Nah really it's a sign of Sh.. It could get really cool on this road with icy conditions! Photoshop?

[Fuentes]

Stupid people, we have a lot of those in this world.

[BCRanger10]

'Cuz they never passed 😆

[MementoMori777]

Maybe cause they never stepped foot in one

[Dargil]

Because they were texting in class.

[msc545]

They didn't go to school.

[jimmy2]

Take them back to grade school

[rebeliouse]

dislexia