I dont have a problem with some words being changed, but overall spelling is in bad shape and I dont think totally ignoring it is going to help anyone. Sounds like this professor is just lazy and doesnt feel like correcting mistakes anymore. English certainly has some quirky stupid spelling rules, but really, we dont need to dumb anything down just to make people feel better about themselves. I mean, they talk about spelling affecting jobs ... umm, SPELLCHECK YOUR DAMN RESUME! Its really not that hard in most cases, people are just getting lazy and careless, and to encourage that even more doesnt bode well.
Where's the the link for that info showing no matter how words are spelled as long as certain letters are correct we can read it?
I've seen that. They say if the first and last letters are in the proper place, the rest of the letters get processed by your brain without too much effort. Or something to that effect at least.