Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-03-25
The Lost Art of Spelling.

| Is Boston, a happy home Of the New
| Ihought, Geld to the New Education? We
had supposed that the city of the three
| hills was full of all the modern educa-
| tonal improvements and WITNESSES, and
| that her schools We're hung with all the
| frlils and embroideries of the accom-
script prints such regrettably old-fashion-
ed and hunkeriSh stuff as this:
1t is fact of observation, explain it
| now you will, that pupils who have taken
prizes for scholarship in grammar schools
| of good standing cannot write letter free
| of blunders in spelling: another fact, that
pupils in high schools, remarkably well
| read for their years. are guilty of gross
errors in spelling; still another, that pu-
pills who have the wit and brains and style
| to write charming letter, misspell
abominably; and yet another, that boys
seeking entrances to colleges of first rank,
| and science, spell after the fashion of
witch AS to the common rules of or
biography, the ignorance that there are
any worth trying to understand and apply
| is amazing"
| The schools have more important mat
tiers than spelling to attend to and they
nave no time to waste on foolish rudi-
ments. Why, there are the Chicago
school children who study street cleaning
| municipal bookkeeping, municipal reform
| and various other branches of the world
shadowing tree of sociology They do
condescend to "visualized" reading and
oHciiIS, dlu IL you understand the SyS-
| TEN according to which they learn you
| can't help being astounded by their learn
ing. We have seen fathers weep tears Of
pride and JOY while examining the attain
ments Of their progeny. Show Jack the
word dog" for example He may deny
all knowledge of it. Begin to bark; at
once he recognizes his old friend dog"
Ask Jill to spell drum" If she is wise
she refuses, Beat tattoo. and she cries
drum" or "ruba-d ub~dub."
plain that their children can't spell or
even read tolerably. after years at school
II the complaint be true. what of it? We
are to assume that things much more
spelling are learned by those children
They learn "to thipk,' they learn con
centra ton many of them can model in
clay little and all can eat sandwiches
servation that boys and girls like to go to
school better than they did in our time.
Why? Because they are better and the
schools are better, and because so much
of spelling and the three RS. Whatever
our children learn or fail to learn it is a
great satisfaction to feel that they are
taught in the right manner. If their I'M
the advantage of the improved methods.
Let us start out with the idea says
our preadamite Boston friend, that chill
dren can be trained to SPELL if they cam
iiol NC tduSHl-Spel1nS can De made q
matter of memory, and be acquired as a
habit" On the contrary let us run away
from so atrociouS and antiquated a be-
lief. DO we want to make poll-parrots
OF our children? There are higher facui-
ties than memory. 1t is true that some
OF us did, by means of hard work. drill
and damnable itcrat ton learn to spell We
ought TO be ashamed instead of being
proud Of that force of habit and memory
Better not learn at all than learn by the
use OF an unscientific method.
BESIDES what is the use Of learning to
spell! photography is fluid, not fixed
Here are the spelling reform associations
BUSY In forcing us to use new spellings
Every century has it's idiosyncrasies of
spelling and pronunciation. We have to
unlearn in age much of what we had to
learn in youth Even under the old rule
OF primer and spelling book, some great
ana good men never could get q high
mark in spelling. Everybody knows that
the Father of His Country was an arbi-
tary speller, so bad a speller that good old
Jared Sparks thought it would be sac
rliigious to let posterity see the honest
facts. In spite of his early New Hamp-
shire opportunities. the godlilie Daniel
spelled to suit himself. AS the Emperor
Slglsmund was above grammar, why
shouldn't American sovereigns be above
spelling?
In time spelling will be left to colleges
OF prootreaders. Whatever becomes of it, |
pur children can't be expected to negledt1
their many nobler and newer studies fora
that tedious, changing and plebeian bus
ineSS.-New York Sun