The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1854-06-10
For The Cecil Wing.
POPULAR EDUCATION.
No. Y ILL.,.

Tn stating at the close d Il former article
that Phonetic Spelling, if applicd would BAN
ISL the dcstitution of knowledge which pre-
walls in England and the United States, | am
conscious of having made a bold assertion.
BIT however bold, will undertake TO sus-
tain it.
First: it may be proper to explain what is
meant by Phonetic Spelling. The English
language consists of about forty elementary
sounds. Some of this number, are dipthongs
but in devisng an alphabet, it has been
thought best to represent them by single char
actors. Hence, five take IL separate letter
for each Ct tLcsc SIM lie sounds, whose Office
is fixed and invali;hIc, it is plain that we
have the means ,f ), cling all the words in
the language, without rcsoIfing to any eff The
arbitrary, ever changing combinations which
abound i'll our present orthcglalhy.
70 learn TO rad l'y means Of ilc Rcnanir
alphabet requires a living teacher constantly
at hand to fix the pronunciation Of each new
ly occurring word in the mind Of the pupil,
III ~ tiiC ali'i!uptt, INV
pupil has no sooner acquired knowledge Of
the letters than he finds himself in possession
ola key TO the sounds ofall the words in his
book The letters are an infallhle guide to
the pronunciation. lie has, it is true. TO Ie-
mtmber few more letters than the Roman
ic pupil but this being done the whole task
Of memory is accomplished; While the schol-
ar ofthc twenty-Sir letters has in addition to
ancc Of every word in the language. spirit
Of sclfrclinnce is thus cultivated at the out
set ofhis literary career that is Of vast inn
portance in determining his future character.
To attain correctness III our common or
biography is, with the great mass of man.
kind, perhaps impossible. Those who do ac
quirc it, accomplish their object only by years
Of pcrscvcrng toll. The great mass of chill
drcn, brought up at country schools, tho
they spend i'll the aggregate, years upon Or
biography: if called upon TO use tie pen in
after life, find themselves shamcfully deficient
in this branch of their education. With the
phonetic pupil, mark the contrast. With
him SPELLING is not an act of memory but of
Judgment. lie needs to spend no time in
studying photography. lie gathers the APP
proved pronunciation of words from books,
(without dictionary or from tic conycrsa-
ton of educated persons, and the sound being
known, tie spelling is natural inference.
The child of seven years old, after a few
months practice, will sIcll correctly any
word that can be impressed upon his car. As
soon then, as he learns to use the pen he is in
possession Of all the equipments that scholar
ship requires, and as hst as his intellect cX-
pands he is prepared to lay hold upon the
treasures Of science and literary refinement.
Had his youthful inquisitiytness been re-
pulsed by the asperitics of the common Or
biography how different would have been the
result But the reader may call for some
thing more convincing than thcorctc proof
From the thousands of cases in which phonet-
ic spelling has been made use of, in England
and the United States, we will rarticularizc
q few. James lIornsby writing from Leeds
England in the year lS49, says:
''On each Sunday afternoon meet class
ofeight ignorant adults most of them being
unable to read at all. have also had class
Of upwards of 100 pupils in phonotipy in
this town. After three lessons they could
Rad the lphonotypic) journal with case"
Bonn Pitman, writing from Manchester,
Scptt ,nber 18th 1910. saws:
Il have two children aged 5 and seven
years son and daughter of merchant in this
city, as private pupils; who are being in
struct,d by myself and Mrs. Pitman in pho
netie reading preparatory to their common.