, 1880-12-19
GRANT WHITE AND THE SCHOOL ouEs-
TON,

Mr. Richard Grant White is fastidiou
gentleman. The slightest misuse of the En-
gljsh language irrltatcs him. The failure O
the common people to always spell accord
ing to Worcester, and to observe all tn
grammatical nicetles of speech customary K
the best society. jars upon his sensitive
nerves. lie puts the responsibility for thi!
| failure upon the American public-school sys
TEN. Ordinary men and women do not speak
and write correctly, according to his stand
ards; therefore they are bhdIy taught; there
fore the schools in which they are tauglltar
deficient Such is the logic of his late screed
IN the North american Rcpic,v pronounc.
ing the free-school system failure, and de-
| manding its abolition.
It would be impossible in the compass of
one newspaper article to notice and refute
all of Mr.. Grant Whites criticisms upon the
public~school system. For the present q
brief examination of the grounds on which
ne bases his argument must suffice. He
says, in the first place. that the children do
not spell well. His exact language is:
According to independent and competent evil
dence from all quarters tho mass of the puDls
OF these public schools are unable to read in
tellieenty, to spell correctly to write legfbIy to
describe understandings the>geography Of their
own country, or to do anything that reasonably
we'll educated children should do with case
In support of this sweeping statement he
quotes copiously from the report of Mr,
George A. Walton, Agent Of the N1assachu-
sets State Board Of Education, on the public
schools Of Norfolk County, which borders
upon Boston. ami the inhabitants Of which
are somewhat exceptional in wealth and in
telligence. Motto dwellupon the fact that the
condition Of the schools i'll one county of one
State is narrow foundation on which to raise
charge OF universal ineticiency, it is note
worthy that A1r. White confines his extracts
only to proofs Of so-calIed "bad spellingu
among the children of that county. Thus,
he cites with glee the statement that the
word scholar " was spelled in $50 different
ways; tho word "dep8t" in 65; "whosen in |
LOS; which " in 5S; and the adverb "too"
incorrectly spelled in $50 cases out Of 1.1oa !
or BY nearly II per cent of all the children |
who made the trial. His test of good COM
non-scoool education is apparently accuracy
in spelling. At least his accusations resting
1pon the testimony Of others are directed en-
irely to this point.
Now, suppose it should be establshed-as
t may be without great diflculty-that thu
majority OF American children have hard
work i'll learning how to spell: what does that
rove? That the children are wrong. or
hat the system Of spelling is wrong? That
be children should be reformed, or that
be system should be reformed? That
hfldren should cease to study SPELL
ag, or that the task appointed fo1
hem should be less dispropornonata
, tneir faculties and the time at their rom.
land There are two ways Of getting oyer
n obstacle. One is to increase tha f,,roo.
10 other is to diminish or remove tho ~,
:acie. In the case Of children who have to
rapple with the unfathomable mysteries md
Irregularities OF English orthografy there
no means OF adding to the force. Rut
'ere Is way, as many competent writer's
ave pointed out, to diminish the monstrona
arden unreasonably imposed upon them.
1t Is a remarkable TACT that MI, Grant