The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1897-07-24
&c sPELLlNa cLAss.
reat Bosiah AehIevemea.. in seho

&rent BDytsh achievements IN Seh0ol
Recalled by a MIddIe-Aged Man.
@0ur views as to what constitutes
great achievements,' said the middle.
aged man, vary with our years. / well
remember the time when I looked upon
the boys who could spell such words as
.inimateriality and 'incompatibility'
without mistake, and wonder.
"As the words in the spelling book
Increased in number of syllables there
were fewer and fewer words TO the les
son. There might be in the two-syl.
tabled words lessons whose columns OF
words reached half or three-quarters of
the way down the page, and with Eve
or six columns across the page. Those
seven and eight-syllabled words were in
short lessons, only seven or eight words
deep, and only two or three columns
across the page. But, short as they
were, these short, compact blocks OF
words of many syllables presented to
the younger boys, who occasionally
looked forward in the spelling book at
them, difficulties that seemed absolute.
~ insurmountable, and when the
youngsters heard the older boys spell
these words out en- exhibition days at
7the.close of a term, or on days when the
trustees paid the school a visit, why it
scented the highest imaginable achieve
meDt.
.taThis highest class, few in number,
like the long words in the book, would
be ranged in a row in front of the seats,
between the seats and the teachers
.nJo4fD,.rr ,,,oOne rrhsoh Co4 4ho trrIstpaS
This spelling was the elimination OF
the exercises, and the whole school was
interested, and everyone was anxious
that the class should acquit itself cred,
itably, and the younger pupils like my
self believed that the trustees must be
greatly impressed.
I" Immateriality,' comes from the
teacher, standing book in hand at one
end of the platform, to the head of the
GLASS, who repeats the word and pro.
.ceeds to spell it:
"'Im~materiality. I'm, i'm, ma, ma.
im-ma, tie, tie, im-ma-te ri ri, immateri,
AL, im-ma-te-ri-al, i, im-ma-te-ri-al-i,
t-y ty, immateriality.'
'He is prompt and confident from
start to finish, but the whole school
follows him breathlessly and feels
easier when he has finished.
'Indestructibility, says the teacher,
looking at the next boy, and he repeats
At and goes on with it confidently:
"sIndestructibility, I'm in, DE de,
indie, s-t-r-u-c istruc, indestruc, hi ii,
in-de-struc-ti, bill, bill, in-de-struc-ti.
bill, j, in-de-struc-ti bill, t-y ty, indie
sstructibility.'
"And so it rattles along, everyone
prompt and correct until the teacher
gives out one of the long words to a
timid, shy little fellow who is fairly
overcome by the presence of the trustees
and the general solemnity and high
tension of the whole occasion. He
founders and founders over it hope.
lessly, with a faint and shrinking
voice. The teacher repeats the word,
.enunciating the syllables separately,
with an almost painful distinctness, tc
impress them upon the little chaps
mind, but he only founders the more.
One of the trustees looks stern, and the
Eother two look kind and sympatheti and
presently the stern man comes around
too, but the youngster breaks down ut,
terly, and the teacher gives the word
to the next boy. That boy doesn'trealize
at all the timid terror of the boy who
has just failed; he isn't thai kind of q
hoy, and he rattles the word off boldly
and glibly. And so it goes round and
round, till the words of the lesson are
all given out. The little chap who failed
the first time comes up valiantly the
second time, and spells his wore
promptly and correctly, whereat all the
trustees, the stern one included, smile
~cn~couragingly.
From first to last, half a dozen OF
more words are bungled by one boy ant
another, but still the school feels thai
the class has done very well, and as fol
me, being q small boy and only as fal
as the two-syllabled words, 1 go home
to tell my folks of the wonderful deed
performed that day by So-and-so Of oul
school in the spelling examination, anC
of the particularly tremendous feat o,
Wiggles, the smallest boy in the class
who never missed a word."-N. Y. Sun