The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-01-10
THE sPELLING-BOOK IN CIVILIZATION.

Professor Harris, United States Com
missioner of Education, in the introduce
ton to his last report, has made some
interesting observations relative to the
influence which the study of language
has upon the nations or races which
speak them. He says that it takes about
two years longer for children in the pub
lie schools in which English is the lam
guage to make the same progress in
quired for children in German and
French schools. This is due to the in
tricate photography of the English Ian
guage. the two extra years being neces-
sary to conquer the English spelling
book. At first thought this would seem
to be time thrown away. but the Profess
sor very plausibly asserts that this long
study of the spelling book is one of the
influences which have made the Anglo
Saxon and English-speaking peoples
conservative. The years spent in the
mastery, or even partial mastery, of the
involved English photography imper-
ceptibly but surely inculcate reverence
for precedent. This reverence for pre-
cedent of the spelling-bOok prepares the
pupil in later life to accept that system
of Inconsistencies known as Common
law" Local self-government, the out
growth of the Anglo Saxon race, was
not sudden inspiration, but conse-
quence of the conservatism which is the
result of reverence for presidents and
institutions. Where the people of this
country are best educated there they are
most conservative, and hold the laws
and established institutions in highest
regard. On the other hand, in those
localities where Judge Lynch oftenest
holds court, and where individual rights
and the laws are least observed. there
the people have spent the least time in
attempting to memorize the English
spelling book. If the Simses, who have
been pursued by lynchers in Alabama,
and the lynchers themselves. had spent
more years, or. indeed, any years, in log
school-houses wrestling with the illog-
ical photography of our language they
would have learned a conservatism
which would make them reverence the
laws of the land. Such, at least, is the
reasoning of Prof. Harris; and possibly,
absurd as it may appear at first, the
wider the application of his theory is
made to the conditions of society in
different parts of the country in the past
the greater number of facts will be
found to sustain it.
China affords the best illustration of
the theory which the Professor has ad-
vanced in his report. China has not
changed for a thousand years. The
characteristics of its people are the same.
To what influence can this be attributed
more than to the peculiarities of the
written language of that peOple7 To ac-
quire it the Chinese youth must learn a
distinct character for each word. This
must take years of application, during
which time he not only learns to con-
form obediently to what is prescribed,
but in learning that object or character
language his mind is saturated with the
adages and the dogmas of the remote
past. The study of such q written Ian
guage, generation after generation, has
made the Chinese the most perfect imi-
tators, but it has deprived them of all
power to invent. And SO long as the
Chinese adhere to such a written Ian
guage, so long they will be the people
they have been since the days of Con-
fuchs, and all efforts to bring them into
harmony with a newer civilization will
be vain.
If, as Professor Harris leaves us to in
fer, the study of the photography of the
uglish language has created that con-
servatism in the Anglo-Saxon race
which has given the world the best ex-
emplification of local elf-gOvernment
rather than any inherent superiority of
race, is there not possible danger that
this valuable characteristic may disap-
pear when the champions of spelling re-
form shall have absolved English speak
ing people from the tyranny of the
spelling book and established freedom
in photography If Professor Harris's
theory 10 correct, may not the potent
characteristics of English-speaking peo-
pies and the peculiar civilization which