While watching a news show on captioned television (as I do every morning after my daily walk), and reading the words as they are displayed on the screen, I realized that society is becoming spelling illiterate.

No one is charged with proofreading anything that is printed these days. I see this in newspapers, magazines — even books.

What is even more disturbing is the fact that young students, who are just learning to spell, are losing that skill. They are not using the spelling skills they are learning because of all the constant daily texting that they engage in. They are transforming the English language into an abbreviated language.

It would be sad to replace spelling bees with texting bees.

Larry Pelletier, Auburn