The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1916-06-27
SPELLING is EASY.
New York Official DiSpeIS Idea
Words Cannot Be Mastered.
URGES ORTHOGRAPHY STUDY.

Person of Ordinary intelligence a
Fairly Good SpeIIer.
Albany, n. Y. Can we learn to
spellT' the state department Of educn-
ton asks, and an essay ON the subject
by Charles +. Wheclock, assistant
commissioner OF education, is issued
by the department showing that spell
ing may be easily learned. The state
IS to have big spelling bee Sept II
on the state fair grounds at Syracuse.
"In almost every community there
is found a considerable number of per.
sons who are poor spoilers and who
are thoroughly convinced IL is impos.
sible for them ever to learn to spell"
Mr.. Wheelock says.
THE fact is that, while there may be
now and then a person who cannot
spell because OF some mental defect, in
the great majority Of such cases per
sons holding the belief that they can
never learn TO spell are mistaken re-
garding their own powers AS I'm ey-
cry other field of endeavor, the one
who starts out feeling to a certainty
that he Il going TO fail is In a fair
way to have his expectations realized.
"It seems to the writer that 1t Is
time for some one to come TO the de
Tense of the poor old English language
which, while it Is not perfect by any
means, is still not SO perfectly awful
nj tur P.rta 1t4sitn
have us believe. 1t IS possible TO paint
q fearful picture by simply referring
TO the words supersede, exceed, etc.
"How is it possible ever to master
the spelling of IA language where such
things are printed? When. however,
we become aware of the fact that it is
necessary to learn as individuals only
1 four Of these seed words, namely, su-
persede. exceed, proceed. succeed. and
\ that all the others end I'm cede, the
whole group Is mastered without seri-
Gus difficulty.
Another group that is often referred
to as being beyond the capacity of the
ordinary intellect is that containing ie
or ei. but the backbone of the difficulty
in this group Is easily broken by the
old rhyme (or rime II you prefer:
Write l before r except after c,
or when sounded as ~
"A i'm neighbor and weigh
THE boy or girl who will thoroughly
master this rime aud who will then
learn as an individual the words that
seem 10 have neither rhine nor reason
either, seize. counterfeit, forfeit, sur.
felt, seight, weir, leisure, height,
heifer-will have no further trouble
with the combination lie or Ell Ger.
tainly ii does not require massive In
tellect or extraordinary effort TO master
this group. which is so often used as M
lnsuperable difficulty of English spell
ing
"A large proportion of the errors 81
the ordinary high school pupil IS made
mp of failure TO drop the final @, of fail
ure to double the final consonant in de
rlvatiyes. and OF failure TO note tha'
} the adjective termination Is full no
: full. all of which are matters that re
! qulre for their mastery no special glf
, of intellect. but are easily within the
reach of the ordinary fourteen-year-olC
pupil.
THE reason for the spelling of refer
referring, reference, once thoroughly
understood, win make 1t impossible &
missncll these words thereafter. 1t re
quires only ordinary intelligence to ar
prcciate the difference between hopin
and hopping. The student who ha
l been fortunate enough to have bee
well taught In Latin win find real dc
; light In accounting FOR the differenc
! between such words as emigrant am
: immigrant. I'm explaining why there ar,
: only one and two c's I'm desiccate, Il
: the reason for the double letters in b
: ennial, centennial, Mediterranean, In
; nocent, innocuous and In accountin
for special features Of hundreds o
y other words. 1t is possible for n spell
8 ing lesson treated In this way to bt
: come almost as interesting as q stor
: by Sherlock Holmes. The detective IL
stlnct finds here abundant opportunit
Q for exercise.
J. "Of course it must be understood tha
9 after all the classification of words an
; the disposal OF difficulties by group
: there will still remain till and unit
y separate. syzygy, phthisis, catarrl
y hemorrhage and many other like di'
!. agreeable complaints, which fortunate
\ ~ are for the most part infrequent an
r are to be dealt with only when necei
Il sary. list of 200 or 300 OF these te
v rors would include all that one woul
n need to consider, and certainly Ii is ne
0 beyond the capacity of the fourteeI
l. year-old pupil TO master 200 or &c
y hard words. Five words day woul
S make 100 words month, SO two {
three months at this rate would clea
Q them all up
g IF you have acquired the notion thu
6 the difficulties of spelling are insupe
IT able get the notion out OF your head {
{ once. If you have been led to beliey
Y that you lack the particular brain eel
, I'm which are stored the proper arrang
ment of letters in words get rid of tn,
notion too. You should enter at ono
on the job of convincing yourself tn;
you can do IL. aud remember alway
that there Is no royal road to know