The Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1885-1886, 1886-01-13
MIND STUNTING.
The Branch of Study which Brings Only
Discontinue and Bewilderment to
the Pupl-"A Lying, Roundabout,
Puzzie Headed Delusion.'


Learning TO read the English lang uage Is
one of the worst mind stunning processes
that has formed part of the general edu-
cation of any people. Its evil influence
arise from the partly phonetic, partly law
less character of English spelling Although
each letter represents soma sound oftener
than any other, there is hardly letter in
the alphabet that does not represent more
than one sound, AMI hardly a sound in the
language that il not represented in several
ways, while many words are written with
as many silent letters as significant ones.
Tiere is nothing in any word to Indicate in
which OF these ways its component sounds
ara repre- sented, nothing in the written
group of letters to show which sounds they
stand for, and which Of them, if any, silent,
so that learner can nsver be sure of pro-
nouncing rightly an English wori that he
has not heard spoken, nor of spelling cor
rectly one that he has never seen written
The spelling of each word must be learned
by sheer forcs of memory. In this work the
pupii's reasoning power can not be utilized,
but must be subiuei, while his memory is
sadly overworked.
| In the affairs o. the ehilds daily life, the
| logical following out Of rules Is rewarded;
| in learning to spell, it brings him only dis
| com future and he widerment He is taught
| that bone stands for bon mot bo-ne,) and
| tome for ton, but that done stands
/ for dun. that gone spells gon, move
| spells moov, ahI b-r-o-l-z-e br0nz Now
| when be comes in reading to another similar
| worl, as none, he has no means of telling
| whether to call it non, nun, non, noon, or
non; he can only look up at his teacher and
wait TO be told The influence of the SPELL
ing class quickly drives him to repress any
inclination t. reason, aud he gives him elf
up to blind following of authority,
So much attention is given to spelling that
children obtain false ideas of its impor-
lance. The spelling, or representation, be-
comes TO them the word, while the real
thought of as an appsndage They learn to
despise the poor speler, a prejudice which
| is never outgrown, and above oil they be-
come so absorbed in the manipulation Of
words that they have little chance to grasp
the ideas which the words stand for
If our notation of numbers were as irreg-
ular as our notation of speech, so that the
numbers from forty toforty-fve, for instance
should be written, say as follows: 40, Al,
| 490, IS, ~, 225; and if no one could tell
at sight whether a number like 7,243 SIP
contained several figures which were
silent OF lad exceptional values, who can
doubt that the study of arithmetic, instead
OF being valuable discipline, would be
mere mentally enervating druigery7 If it
| we're proposed that children should learn a
| style of writing music which gave different
| values to the same characters, similarly
placed, in different pieces, and added host
of silent" notes, the evils of learning such a
system would lie plainly seen. Yet many
people, who have forgotten their own suffer
ings in the spelling class can not see that
child rem are so very much perplexei in
learning to spell, or perhaps maintain that
the struggle Involved is good for them"
~ know" avs Msx Muller, "thers are
persons who can defend anything, and VIII
holI that it is due to this very discipline
that the English character is what it is; that
it retains re pect for authority; that it dee;
not require reason for everything; and
that it does not admit that what is incon
csivabie Is therefore impossible" LORI
, lytson says: "A more lying, roundabout
puzzle headed delusi1n thsn that by which
we confuse the clear instincts of truth il
our accursed system of spelling was nevel
coucoctel by the father of false hood
How can a ~ stem Of education flourish tina
begins by so monstrouS fal'ehood, whicl
, the sense of hearing suffices to contradict
, Mr.. j. H. Gladstone, member of the Eng
lish school board for London, has computed
the number of hours spent by the childre
in learning to read and spell English to b
ESQ, while in gaining an equal knowledg
? Of TIER native language Italian childre;
spend only 945 hours. The differenc
amounts t. ne9rly two school years an
shows under what disadvantage English
. speaking chiliren labor. Can any on
believe that 92S, AL or 1874 per cent, Q
our population over 10 years of age woul
be illiterate if learning t. read were not S
: formidable an undertaking. In Norway
p Swe len, Denmark, Switzerland, and som
, Garman state, ihars ere hardly any Hitter
ate.
The most striking tie ,timony to the irrse
ularity of our spelling il the adoption b
some teachers of sort of Chinese mode {
r teaching reading. The children are NJ
b. taught that lettorS represent constituer
sounds of words, hut they learn to reco!
nize each group of letters as an arbitraT
compound symbol staining for a wor,
This is mure OF ? dead drag on the memer
n than even tine A nc method, ami, il
A could bs completely carrie out, would be
n vastly longer process. The effect on ii
= mind i; certainly no better. The Chine
have to memories q compound symbol fl
each word in learning to read, but the p
> tent Endurance of such a burden is not col
sstent with the character of any 9th,
| people than the submissive, initiative, an
e unprogressive Chinese The Japanese, wi
. have long been cioyged by the same system
have recently taken measures to thro
it of.
IS