Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-05-13
THE WATERLOO SPELLING CONTEST.

| Not long since the Waterloo Courier
sent list of fifty words to the var-
Gus high school superintendent in the
vicinity of Waterloo requesting them to
| have the list pronounced as spelling
test to their pupils. The Couriers re.
quest was complied witk by the super
intendents of the Waterloo schools and
those at Cedar Falls, Independence, La
Porte, Hudson, Nashua and Jesup and
the papers returned to he Courier Of
flee unmarked. The summary of results
shows marked inability among the
pupils taking the test to spell common
English words correctly. Eight hun
dred and seventy-six pupils We're ex-
amined and the total number of words
written 43,S00. OF these 1885 We're in
correctly spelled, each pupil averaging
to miss 21.2. Boys missed an average of
23.6 and girls 20.9. TIE high school
classes of the State Normal School av-
eraged ia misses, while the regular
OF nineteen misses out of the fifty
words. The LaPorte school fell down to
24.6, almost one-half the total number
of words pronounced.
The test is interesting as an index of
the average inability of the present stu
dent to spell correctly ard emphasizes
the need for better training in this re-
gard. This need has been indicated in
every business Office of the country,
where correspondence is conducted thru
dictation. 1t is hard to find good spell
ers. The average made on a list of
fifty words without preparation by the
pupils Of the high schools included in
the Courier's test very likely is as good
as the same number of schools else
where would make under similar condi-
tons. 1t is probably as good average
side the schoolhouses of Iowa, but it is
not good spelling. Elder people will
make unfavorable comparisons between
the spelling Of the country schools of a
ago and the figures devel-
oped by the Courier's test. However,
those elderly and middie-aged people
to have no figures to show in
support of their comparisons. The
chances are that the average of 21.2
h; 4;s.
than precisely similar test would have
developed thirty years ago. The same
list of words pronounced to SO men
and women gathered promiscuously
from the middle-alged population would
be likely to produce originalities of or
biography equal to any observed by the
nigh school examiners.
1t is our photography more than it's
students which needs fixing" Con.
;idering the photographed difficulties
If the English language we are a nation |
VI good spoilers. Silent letters and |
and senseless construction
If words by multiplication of characters |
which represent none Of their articulata |
,omponents should4be eliminated and
more natural and rational method |
adopted. School life is too short and |
90 much is to be acquired during its
period to waste valuable time upon a
method of spelling dependent upon
memory more than upon system. There
eems no good reason to retain the USE
ess 81 in receive or believe" two
words commonly misspelled. Wei
hould make spelling as easy to learn
Is possible. Spelling is not education,
tut an aid to learning. 1t Is simply a
DOL to be used. We reed a test for
words of unscientific construction and
heir amendation by process of substi-
ution and elinlina ton. Let the old TO-
,ies cling to "phtlisis" and the Stick
RS" of the spelling school, but let us,
GLOWING the fashion of Mr. Weller,
each our children to spell it with
/ t."
Since the Inauguration, two years
'go, by the T.-R of the phonetic plan of
polling words ending in ugh" "ue,"'