The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-06-14
THE MANUFACTURE
Of POOR SPOILERS
Modern School Methods
Condemned byA Teacher
OLD SYSTEM THE BEST

Is 1t Any Wonder 1hat Children Do
Not Spell Well When, Not Only is
No Attempt Made to Teach Them,
But When They Are Thrown at the
Beginning into All the Inconsistent
cies Of Written English?
To the Editor: Your issue of May
q contains an interesting editorial
on The Neglect of Spelling" giving
the results OF Professor W~hipple's
examination Of papers at Cornell Uni
versity. These results are not sur
prising to any one in high school or
college work in the North. A similar
item on bad spelling was published
last fall from North Western Uni
yersity. and the question was asked:
SIS spelling no longer taught"
This question may not be serious,
intending to imply that spelling is
poorly taught. But. to give a serious
answer. it is a fact hat in most
schools nowadays beginners in read
ing at the time when they ought
to be laying a foundation for spelling,
are not taught the subject at all. On
the contrary, the learner is instructed
to read without regard to the indi-
vidual letters of the words. and a
primer that contains the alphabet is
an exception. Consequently, teachers
in higher schools find their pupils
not only poor spoilers, but some of
them unable to use a dictionary by
reason of not knowing the order of
the letters.
Instead OF the old-fashioned way
Of first learning the alphabet. then
words through their spelling, and last
the reading of sentences, self-styled
progressive primary teachers now use
some of the new d devices.
Chief among these is the chinese
method: the teacher points out any
word whatever. and the child (whO
doesn't know B from bulls foot) is
told to remember that word from it's
general appearance. just as a Chinese
child has to learn the words of his
written language, which has no al
phabet
1t seems that the more irregular
the spelling OF the first words pre-
scented to the beginner. the better it
Is for the Chinese method. One re-
cent primer by a prominent advocate
Of this. has in it's first sentence five
words containing the letter o, and in
each word ''o' has a different sound.
The words are of, for, two, money,
bought. Observe also, in addition to
and five sounds Of the letter O.. that it
has q different sound each time it oc-
ours. thai w is silent, and that Ough
Is an unusual combination for the aw
sound.
The child in an old-fashioned school
that could spell all these words cor
rectly by the end of a term. would be
doing Well But these words ecu in
Che very first lesson in the book: the
children. however. are not taught to
spell these or any other words. And
this primer is but a tpe Of many; they
begin with words like baby and
mamma with two sounds of the let
teC a. and pretty, and little with e,
y. and / having the same sound, and
enc Q silent.)
Is it any wonder that children do
not spell we'll, when not only is no
attempt made to teach them, but
when they are thrown at the begin
ming into all the Inconsistencies Of
written English.
A faverite with some leaders of
modern educational thought is the
3ump-and-run method Of teaching
reading: The children stand up on the
floor and jump. Then the teacher
shows them the sentence. Il jump"
The fact hat they have just jumped
is expected to teach them thtt SEN
$O~ASN' ~ a. NaASJ ~ 11CfSI SSL
1T. This. be it remembered, is their
first lesson: these children begin their
struggle with the written qua
not with letters, nor even words. but
with entire sentences. In the same
way they learn the whole primer. IT
rum" L play marbles" 81 catch a
ball" etc. by doing all these things.
q do not Know how they would
teach a little girl to read who could
not shoot marbles or catch a ball.)
There may be some old-time SPELL
ers who think that no such conditions
really exist in any school; tina 1 must
be ex~aggerating. For their benefit
4 Will quote from the instructions to
Of some of the p-to-da to
primers:
Before reading the story of Blow
Ing Soap Bubbles let the children
blow soap bubbles
How should the word RIM ha
This is an easy word. of reg