Writing Right

Do you know how to read and write English? You answer, "Of course, Jared Diamond, you dope. How else would I be reading this magazine?" In that case, have you ever tried to explain the rules behind written English to someone? The logic, say, of spelling the word seed as we do instead of cede, ceed, or sied? Or why the sound sh can be written as ce (as in ocean), ti (as in nation), or ss (as in issue), to name just a few possibilities? Innumerable examples like these illustrate the notorious difficulties of written English, even for educated adults. As I am now rediscovering through my twin sons in the first grade, English spelling is so inconsistent that children who have learned the basic rules (insofar as there are any) still can't pronounce many written words or spell words spoken to them. Danish writing is also difficult, Chinese ...