Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1881-05-05
'FRONT.' ON. MO-.
THURSDAY. MA Y5, 1881.
Compulsory scneol Attendance.

Compulsory Scn0OA AttenO0HCee
Ed. Register-
Nv the term Education, believe, is
meant the cultivation of the moral fac
ulties by the process of drawing out
(educere) those qualities of the human
mind which distinguish 1t from the in
telligence of the lower animals.
Now when we consider the made
quacy Of the means that have been in
use In past years for the development
of the best and most useful functions
Of youthful minds, and when we re-
member that many, if not most, of the
ablest inventors and thinkers in every
age were persons who were not subject
ed to the slow plodding process of or
thodox pedagoguery, we cannot easily
refrain from priding ourselves on the
facilities we now have for attaining
knowledge greater than ever the an
clients could possibly possess. But the
difference in our favor IS more than
counterbalanced by the difficulties
which have grown out of the modern
methods Of imparting information and
from the neglect OF training the pupils
to learn for themselves.
In ancient days the teacher impaired
by word OF mouth to his well-grown
and attentive pupils information on all
such subjects az he was versed in,
whether of natural, mental or moral
philosophy. In modern times the chill
dren who have not yet learned to think
are drummed and drilled into a system
of memorizing arbitrary formula
which they are incapable Of compre-
hending, and can only for the most part
appreciate after they in time have at
attained the moral sta tus of the person
who has dictated them. This, too, un-
der the great disadvantage of system
of spelling which requires years of try
ing drill to acquire, and which. while
pretendedly based on sound values, is
the most contradictory of any that
could be devised for the puzzling of the
human mind.
Every one, of no matter what age or
whatever his attachments may be, is
familiar with the fact that he must
have dictionary at his elbow if he
would be correct in his photography
when writing on the simplest matter,
and yet by this early training and the
waste Of many years Of valuable early
life, we condemn our children to per-
.petuation Of the absurdity, rather than
display the moral courage to condemn
1t and declare for simple phonetic
form.
But this will come in course of time.
We live in a progressive age and among
a progressive people, and it may not be
long before the few improvements in
troduced by Webster into the language i
of America, as by Voltaire into the lam
guage of France, be supplemented by a
complete reform, until any one who
knows the names of the letters thereby
knows the sounds, and that each letter
having but one sound and there being
but one letter for each sound, we shall
have no more trouble in writing or
reading than in speaking correctly.
We shall then get clear of the diff
culties arising from the seven sounds Of
a, the six of e, the five of 1, the ten Of
Q, the seven of u, and the three of q.
Nor would this necessitate the addi-
ton of many new letters to the alpha
bet, for those vowels are made to do
duty for one another at present in a
marvelously complex manner, as are
such consonants as c, K and O, the in
adequate excuse for which, is that the
words are derived from many different
languages, and therefore must follow
the spelling derived from their roots.
It were as wise to deprive us of the
power of speaking until we could tell
the derivation of the words we use. as
of the facility of writing our ideas In
our native language until we knew of
the language from which our words
were derived.
DR.. Haldeman, Professor Of Compar-
alive Philology at the University of
Pennsylvania, however, proves that
English spelling Is not due to linguists
or scholars, but to accident, which
caused the same stem to take different
forms-as, for instance, Jew and Judea;
joke, jocose; nown, renown; nurture,
nourish; pair. compare; prove. proof;
guard. regard" &C., &C., &c. And he
further remarks that sensible people
are getting 20 Disguised with the idol
Of English spelling that when some
one perceived he could write .jaip FOR
'gaop the crowd wondered at its own
want Of perception in not having an
ticipated the discovery"
The American Spelling Reform As
ISOLATION is already doing much in the
right direction - regards this reform;
but there ID much to be done in other
directions to economist the precious
time Of those who are DESTROYS of get