<p>Unless a genuine learning problem is involved, I believe that misspelling common words is a sign of sloppiness, as are apostrophes scattered with great abandon and usually in the wrong places. There are far too many people who depend on others to do their proof-reading, thinking it's beneath them, as their minds are preoccupied with profound thoughts. </p>
<p>But misspellings are only a small part of the general disregard for style that I've noticed in American education. Heaven forbid that Johnny's creativity be quenched by pointing out Johnny's mistakes! So Johnny is allowed to give full rein (not reign, please!) to his desire for self-expression, using invented spelling.
In my school, students got graded separately for substance and for syle. Style included not only spelling and grammar but also essay structure and organization. French may be less crazy than English but there are still plenty of opportunities for making spelling mistakes. I believe that attention to spelling in French carried over to my learning of English.</p>