There is a common belief among parents that schools are no longer interested in spelling. No school I have taught in has ever considered spelling unimportant as a basic skill. There are, however, quite different ideas about how to teach it, or how much priority   it must be given over general language development and writing ability. The problem is, how to encourage a child to express himself freely in writing without holding him back with spelling. If spelling becomes the only point of his teacher's interest, clearly a bright child will be likely to " _ ". He will write only words within his spelling range  . That's why teachers often encourage the early use of dictionaries and pay attention to content rather than technical ability. I was once shocked to read on the bottom of a sensitive piece of writing about a personal experience:"This work is terrible! There are far too many spelling mistakes." It may have been a sharp criticism  of the pupils technical abilities in writing, but it was also a sad thing for the teacher who had omitted   to read the composition, which contained some beautiful expressions of the child's deep feelings. The teacher was not wrong to draw attention to the mistakes, but if his priority had centered on the child's ideas, an expression of his disappointment with the presentation would have given the pupil more hope to seek improvement. The expression "play safe" probably means   _  .
to write carefully to do as teachers say to use dictionaries frequently to avoid using words one is not sure of