The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-07-26
Teachers Institute at st. Helens.

The Teachers Institute for the
Fourth District of Oregon, composing
the counties of Washington, Clacka-
mas, Multnomah, Columbia and Clat-
sop, convened at St. Helens, Colum-
bia County, last Tuesday, and con-
tinued two days.
A permanent organization was ef-
fected by electing T. A. Mcbride,
President; F. A. Moore, Secretary;
Mrs. N. e. Morse and Miss Jennie
Mecker, Assistant Secretaries, and S.
G. Adams, of Salem, Chaplain.
All teachers from abroad were
made honorary members of the Insti
tute.
DR.. L. L. Rowland, State Superin-
tendent, and S. G. Adams, of Salem,
were present, and assisted materially
in making the work of the Iastitute
profitable.
The forenoon of the first day was
mostly consumed in organizing and
registering the names of those pres
ent.
DIR. Rowland entertained the Insti-
tute upon the object of institutes and
the advancement that Oregon had
made in the school work since his re-
collections period of thirty-three
years.
sc. Adams made favorable COM
parison of the school work i'll Oregon,
with that of other States.
Other speeches, of general char
acter, were made, and after music by
the the Institute adjourned to meet
for active work at two O'Clock p. NJ.
In the afternoon the subjects of
oRruoGIApmY AND METHODS OF
| SPELLING
were discussed. +. A. Moore made
the opening speech, and offered many
good suggestions. He believed in
sight culture rather than ear culture
in spelling, and urged the Importance
of diversity of methods to secure the
pupils attention, and rivet the words
| in his memory. Among the methods
he proposed were the following: Ar
range numbers on the blackboard,
and let the pupils spell by number;
pronouncing the words and calling
the numbers indiscriminately; thus
compelling the pupil to heed the ex-
ercise closely, or go to the foot OF the
class for non attention.; also, let the
pupils write the names of different
classes of things, thus teaching them
to think as we'll as to spell; and for
advanced scholars good method is
to have ruled paper for each pupil to
write the words of the lesson, the de-
fination of each, and q sentence con-
tanning each word.
DR.. Rowland thought that ear cul-
ture, or spelling by sound, should not
be deprecated. He had noticed that
country pupils are often better spell
lers than city pupils; suggested the
combination of as many profitable ex-
ercises as possible in all studies. The
oral system of spelling combines pro-
| nunciation, articulation, diction, etc.
Mr.. Daniels, Superintendent of
Schools of Clarke County, for the
purpose of introducing the subject,
spoke favorably Of the
PHONETIC SYSTEM,
the art of spelling by sound.
DR.. Rowland thought that while
this system possessed some advan-
tages, the balance of argument was
decidedly against it. BY this system
it would be as difficult to tell how to
pronounce words as under the old
system, and besides that we should
lose the whole system of etymology
by changing from the old system to
the new. Speaking of methods of
spelling, the DR.. called class of nine
girls from the audience and gave IL
Illustrations of his methods for secur-
ing the attention of pupils, and other
wise attaining excellence in this de-
psrtment of school work.
Geo. w. Mcbride objected to the
phonetic system, because it would
break into the natural order of Ian