, 1873-10-04

ming up of the results OF an experiment
tried in all the primary schools of a large
city for the last half dozen years. How
important the results claimed are no one
who has to do with popular education
need be told. 1t is hardly too much to
say that a year gained at seven is not less
important than the same time saved at
fifteen. What experienced teacher does
not know, too, that the education OF a
great many children is really wrecked on
the alphabet In its weary and unintelli-
gible repetition a distaste for and distTust
of schoo 8 is often established in the minds
of children which never afterward can be
overcome. Why should it not be so as
long as the process Of teaching children to
read is essentially unreasonable? If a boy
is told, for instance, that s~ee-ay-tee spells
%"cat,' he very probably does not believe
it. There is no obvious connection be-
tween the letters and the word, He can
see no reason why they should spell "%cat,"
and, as a matter of fact, these names Of let
teTs do not spell it.
But Just what is the method which is
said to accomplish so much 1t is one of
the several varieties of phonetic teaching
or teaching by sound. Its basis is the idea
that the child ought to learn not the name
Of the letter, but the sound. lie is not to
bother his little head with round 0 and
crooked S and the rest OF the ugly troop, but
is to be encouraged to learn what these cha
racters mean-that is, their force in words
with whose sound he is already familiar,
For instance, he is not to learn see-ay-tee;
cat; but, knowing the sound of the word,
he is to articulate in succession the sound
of hard c, short a, and t, and then see that
these sounds put together really spell it.
No scheme has been more laughed at,
|ofterner denounced as " absurd and " i'm
practicabIe'' than this and yet here it
appears in the triumph Of full success.
No doubt some of the systems of pho
netic teaching have been ridiculous enough.
Under any such plan some representative
character or letter has to be found for each
vowel and consonant sound, and a great
trouble has been that the new characters
introduced have been so unlike our letters
as to constitute a new alphabet, and so the
burden upon the chiId's mind has been in
creased, instead of lessened. 1t is worthy
of especial notice that the system followed
in st. Louis reduces this difficulty to min
imum and to small importance, the differ
ent sounds of the same letter being repre-
sented in print by different forms of the
same letter, and not by characters entirely
unlike. Thus the transition to the use of
the ordinary alphabet is facilitated, and, in
fact, the change is made almost insensibIy
by the st. Louis scholars.
This educational experiment was begun
in st. Louis some half-dozen years ago,
under such conditions as would probably
be thought extremely unfavorable. With
little or no warning, the books Of the pho
netic method were put into the hands Of
pupils and teachers, and the latter were
instructed to 60 on with the new way and
allowed to use no other. OF course, the
greatet part Of them had to learn it for
themselves, and it is the strongest argument
for the simplicity and feasibility of the sys-
tenn that under this state of things there
has been such a high degree of success. A
reform in education which by its W
merits converts the whole body of teachers
required to use it to be lis advocates GER
tainly does not lack strength.
We believe that none OF our great
cities have adopted the St. Louis plan,
though some have coquetted with it for
years. It's proved success demands
more serious attention. A cry of
-oro +ip,o'S is routiDuoUv boor1 from