Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1873-07-26
Education Progressive.

| IL keeps what IL IaS, alU gets what IL can.
Like the second temple it grows by accrction.
The printed page retains past acquisitions IN
knowledge, while the ambition of living in
tellcct Is ever active and eager to discover
some new vein of truth, or some fresh facili-
ty for its communication. 1t is interesting
at the present time to note how in the field
of public instruction genius is working out
new problems, both as to the things taught,
the manner of teaching them, and the appli-
anccs. Object lessons, drawing, articulation,
pronouncing photography, singing, oral in
struction, vocal gymnastics, 'vsible speech" "
kindergarten culture, high schools, improved
school-houses, school apparatus, and thor
Ough supervision or visitation of schools, are
illustrations.
Of these, articulation or orthGpy is not
the least important, and call attention to
this, because in examining teachers and visit
ing schools in the Territory, l find in this de-
partment nratked deficiency, and a very in.
adequate appreciation of the subject. l have
found more than one candidate for teacher
ship who could not tell the difference be-
tween the names and sounds of letters. Swift
readers, in school and out, are sufficiently
numerous. But distinct readers,-readers,
spoilers, and speakers who enunciate their
words with accurate articulation, are as rare
as they are pleasing and praiscworthy when
found AS the first requirement in compost
tion is perspicuity, so the first in reading and
speaking is distinctness, and both for the
same reason; language, whether written or
spoken, is the medium for the transmission
of thought, and therefore must be transpa-
rent. An indistinct mumblng or hurried
articulation in reading is as unintellgible and
annoying to the hearer as illegible or blind
Typography to the reader. While we all
commsseratc the boy that is tongue-ted, or
the girl who is afflicted with congental I'M
pediment in her spc cch, teachers should not,
through negligence, permit their scholars,
endowed with perfect vocal organs, grow up
invGterate stammerers. And when we see in
the deaf and dumb institutions of Prussia,
and of our own country, persons who can
neither hear nor speak a word, taught sue
cessfully the elements and practice of artcu-
late speech, it should open the eyes of the
literary public to the wonderful extent to
which improvement in vocal utterance can
be carried, and stimulate us nightly to culti
vate habits of right enunciation in our public
Schools to the highest degree.
Ones acceptabcness and influence in soci-
ETY. arc greatly enhanced by sure and accu-
rate diction. A graceful address is a most
valuable social accomplishment. "A great
part of the immense power of spoken Ian.
guagc depends upon how it is spoken. There
is rcdoubled eloquence in the periods of
beauty or of strength, when they are uttered
with fidelity to all their elements"
How then is correct articulation to be OBJ
tanned in our schools? Drill them thorough
ly in orthography, and in the powers and
uses of the letters, as represented in the in
PRODUCTION to Sanders Union Speller, and in
Higher readers And special aid will be
found in Mr.. Sanders New Primary Speller
and Reader, in the ingenious pronouncing
type of Professor Leigh. For these treatises
introduce the scholar into that most admira-
BILE analytical process, Phonetic Spelling.
As this process is still new to many, we
shall be permitted to dwell upon it little in
closing Phonetic spelling, or spelling by
sound, or pronouncing word so slowly as
to stop an instant after each sound, is so
named from the Greek phone voice, because
it knows nothing primarily, but the sounds
that make up word. You can easily teach
a child to spell phonetically who knows not
letter. Letters are only certain marks or
pictures having names, as A B c. But these
pictures arc the signs of certain sounds. In
spelling, in the ordinary way, you give the
names of the letters, and then Gull and blend
their sounds to arrive at the pronunciation.
But the name of a letter is very imperfect
clue to its sound in given word; although
the name always contains the sound, with
one exception. The English name Of II does
not contain the force of that letter. The
French name does. Every vowel has nu-
merous sounds, its name comedies with but
one of them. The name of each consOnant
is made up of two or more sounds or breath
ings. And now the particular sound which
any of these 90 names indicate in any given
word, we have to search out as we spell, or
l
spell out as we search, for know not which
is the more appropriate. And this has to be
done by little children. 1t is hard work for
them. No wonder they ''make haste slowly"
But the phonetic method meets them with
grateful relief. For with the pronOuncing
type-which aims to designate the true force
of the variable letters in every word-wheth-
er they spell orally or from book, it is spell
ing made easy But the great point gained
is in articulation. On the phonetic plan,
when word is given out you just produce
the sound of the several letters in their order,
and you have spelt the word;i.e. you have itin
its elongated elements, which being CON-
pressed, give you its clear and perfect pro-
nunciauon. 1t is plain to see, therefore,
that this mode is admirably adapted to pro-
mote distinct expression. Indeed i: is no.
thing else than eonstaM practice Of distia0uiJs-
| nm s.rupui1DslU al the Sounds of eryyH trOrd