, 1865-05-16

" an Sbbb u L L IOlGtICS.
''apart from my obligation to teach on that
''principle, [ do not hesitate to give opinion
freely on this point. | discovered from
practical experience, and concluded Iono be-
"fore I left the Country Schools. that the
system as p%ractlsed in thom, was essential
ely detective, and not adapted to the Ortbo-
"graphy of the English fundamentally Of
eject any good by the Phonetical mode of
learning to read, a reformed alphabet, CON
tanning as many elementary signs as there
are elementary SonndS in the language, is
essentially requisite. The attempt to sup
ply this want by means Of certain marks
~"emplOyed, IS a failure, and makes much con-
"1uSIon at a certain stage of the exercises,
"and the most aSsiduouS Teacher cannot fail
"to make the experience that after the marks
'are removed the children have yet to be
taught" Ode novo) "the vowel sounds.
(which occur in most of the words compos-
ing the reading lessons. Again, out of
School, there Is no sympathy with the learn
ser no one is able to assist him with the
blossoms, for no one is acquainted with the
System consequently, to those who do not
acquire a thorough knowledge of reading
"WhiIo under the Teachers eye at school.
''reading will eventually become a dead let
''ter. Even children who may acquire read
"ing by the Phonetic system must always re-
"main ignorant OF English Orth0graphy, and
"WiIl never be able to write correctly. They
may learn to write by copying, but can ex-
%'erciSe no intelligent conception of the con-
'%neCtiOn between the writing of the language.
"and Its O%rthography. The Effectiveness Of
"the system, as practiSed in our Country
"Scho0ls, is so striking as to render It on the
"Wl0le, in my opinion, a decided impediment
"tQ The general progress in reading. Under
"ChoSe circumstances / must certainly give
preference to the ell system being adopted
Gin our Schools
I'd. Mn. Q. WIspETAL, also for many years q
Teacher in the Country Schools, and now a
well known, and highly successful Teacher
in the Public School in Frederiksted one
whose experience, and present independent
position fully qualify him to give a reliable
and unbiased opinion, also writes, in a letter
laid at the same time as the foregoing before
this Commission -"Tho difficulty | experien-
seed in using the Phonetical system, when q
"Teacher in the Country Schools, led me- to
"the conclusion that the task would prove an
"arduous one, and the result obtained not
"cqual to the time lost, and labor expended.
"'IhiS caused me to declare to the Inspector
chat | felt myself incapable of carving it
"out, The ground on which the substi: ution
"0f the one system for the other was original
'ly made, was some fancied superiority in
"the new, and not any absolute deficiency in
"the old. At the Mt. Victory School, under
"the old system, with about the same num-
"ber of children registered as now, | always
averaged about As good readers, not taking
'into account many more, who would, at
''present, be registered as Readers, but who
"then were not reported as such on account
"of their deficiencies. / have been enabled
"to see such defects in the system, as carried
"out in our Country Schools, as render it but
'itI adapted to the English language; since
sit lacks the advantage given to the pure
system of Phonetics by the Introduction of
"the Printing reform. In the absence of this
"tOtal reform in the printing of the English
Language, the children cannot acquire the
cart of reading SO rapidly, and easily, under
"the new, as under the old system and even
''when the more intelligent Of them do sue
"ceed in learning to read by the former, it is
"found, from its intricacy, and from the extra
sexertion required to remember the arbitrary
"meaning of the signs adopted to represent
"the sounds existing in excess Of the regular
"alphabet, that they much sooner forget what
"they may have acquired. Such has been
'my experience wherefore, on these, and
"other grounds already stated, I unhesitating-
"1V give preference to the adODtion cf tina