The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1885-03-20
EDUCATIONAL.
Eastern Schools in which the spelier Wa
Dropped RetrogradIng.-The New
speiler Adopted.
Scientific Education as Training Ia Men
tai Integrity-Current Notes and
Opinions.

/ Opinions.
| COLONEL PARKER VS.. THE sPELLER.
In recent number of a western
school journal, school superintend-
ent asks Col. Parker why he would
abolish the speller from the school
room. The answer Is characteristic.
II takes up nearly two pages, in which
he has tried to condense bis knowledge
Of teaching spelling, talking with the
pencil" as he calls 1t. Stripped Of all
Its philosophy, this article means that
the pupil shall be taught (1) to copy
sentences with absolute accuracy; (2)
to write accurately from dictation the
vocabulary already acquired (3) to
''say with tho penciln anything the
pupil thinks. "'Tis contamination
devoutly to be wished" In this, as is
so often the case. the teacher gets little
help from Col. Parker She Is told to
have her pupils write, and to write cor
rectty, as though every good teacher did
not work for this desirable end.
write. and ,0rite correctlyr' As well
might an artist say to his pupils, here
Is bunch of grapes; there your pal
lette, paint, and brushes. Now, put
these grapes with all their beauty of
form and color, on that canvas. 1t Is
very easy for teacher to tell pupil
what she wants. done; but to have it
done as she wants 1t, Is quite another
matter. II Col Parker has ever found
out this simple fact, he has kept the
information to himself.
Not leng ago when he commenced to
condemn the speller as textbook, he
advised teachers to use the reader, ge-
ography, arithmetic, anything for
speller, except the book itself. Now
he seems to have got beyond these poor
means in educational work, and in the
article referred to he uses this language:
"rhe use of the reading book as O spell
or, or the selection Of words by the
teacher for spelling-lessons, are just as
bad, II not worse, than the use of
ready-made spelling book" Such q
statement as this furnishes its own
comment. II teacher cannot have
speller, q reader for speller, or give
list Of words for a spelling-lesson,
what is she to dop We think this
question many teacher would like to
have Col. Parker "hold himself down"
long enough to answer, and In Ian
guage that can be understood. In his
iconoclastic tendencies he has done the
schools of this section much good.
Here, he has made his reputation as an
educator, and no one would wish to
detract from 1t. Apropos of this, our
Western friends might Ike little Of
our history in connection with their
late importation from this Common
wealth. Largely through his influence
the speller was dropped from our list
of textbooks. Other cities and towns
followed Boston, until 1t became "quite
the thing" for those schools that had
adopted the Quincy methods" to do
without speller. What was the re-
sultP It was the testimony of our
Boston masters, and Of the educators
In our suburban cities and towns, that,
so far as spelling was. concerned, the
schools were retrograding. II was
charged that the pupils could not spell
as well as they could five, ten, thirty,
or fifty years ago. Then, the speller
again. To-day there is not a city, and
probably few, If any, towns where 1t Is
not upon the list of textbooks.
That all teachers have not used
speller to the best advantage is true.
So with other textbooks. Neither have
these spoilers been as good as they
should be, or what they should be. All
this is now changed, and we have texts
fully abreast of our best methods of
teaching spelling and language. Each
new book has, generally, been better
than its predecessor, until now our
spoilers are among the best books we
have for school Use. The old-style
speller is going by, and the new has
come in. 1t is on the right principle,
and Is attractive. Its words are Sc
lected according to the order in which
the pupil advances in knowledge. They
are such as are commonly used In
writing and met with in ordinary read
ing. Besides q well-selected vocabu-
larry of words, this new speller has
something in the line of sentence-build-
ing; while, incidentally, it may give q
few examples of letter-writing, bust
ness-forms, Authorizations, synonyms,
and bomonyms; while II contains few
simple rules for spelling, for punctua-
ton, and for the use of capital letters,
with illustrations of each in its dicta-
ton exercises and quotations. This
new spellef Is to supplement other
books and other means. It will be an
aid to the exceptional teacher, AN q
sine qua non Of the poor teacher. 1t
has come. and It has come to stay
Boston Letter, IN Journal Of Education