I think part of it is culture. My early ele school was tough on kids who couldn't spell or pronounce. The kids too. I led the Spelling Gang in the school and we had rulers and everything beating up the kids who couldn't spell. If a kid didn't read a paragraph within a certain time limit we would steal their lunch money and count it right in front of them because they probably could not count either.

We would make them write, "Oh Spelling gang members, you're the best with all of your efforts to hurt the kids who can't spell like you all can. They're not worth living their whole lives, so you might as well kill us now." Then we'd steal the pens and pencils they had since they were no use to them anyway.