The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1921-03-17
GIVING OR FINDING SPELLING
Prof. A. W. Burr. Berea College

We give the children spelling: long
words, short words, easy words, hard
words, common words, rare words,
lonely words, pairs Of words, home
words, trades words, business words,
technical words, useless words. just
as they come in the spelling book,
thousand or more are thrown at
the youngsters one by one for years.
"Yet so many of our boys and girls, .
we complain. don't know how to
SPELL" Even college students are Of
ten perverse in their spelling.
Is there any way out Of this
drudgery Of years? Any wiser path
to good photography II will not be
by any carefully selected list Of words
"most needed or "most commonly
misspelled." Ayrps' or Jones' lists
in column or in sentences in spell
ing book will continue To be a hard
way for most young spoilers. and i'm
possible for some. Their spelling is
dSS'tldttu NlNu llSJ ol WotuS, "
spelling book. Because the learner
saw word once in n list and spelled
il that day correctly or otherwise. h.
is expected to know its spelling any
dav thereafter. but he doesn't.
Why should the tyro learn TO spell
by word lists any more than he
should learn to read by first pro-
nouncing words in columns We
have put the cart before the horse
and then filled II with what must
often seem TO the speler so much
English junk
Reading comes by the young read
er's noticing the order and meaning
Of words in thought. Spelling comes
by noticing the order Of letters in
words and the importance Of having
the right word. II is the habit Of
noticing, not a lonesome word 81
list, but the words OF the arithmetic.
geography. grammar. reading lessons.
that will make spoilers. When your
friend asks how word new 20 him
is spelled, you may he sure that he
can spell He has the habit.
How shall this important habit he
acquired! BY having pupils find
their own spelling words in their
daily lessons and daily experience
Put away the spelling book. Have
spelling lessons. but have the words
selected by the class, now from the
arithmetic lesson Of the day, now
from the geography, the history. the
reading. now from home words, gro
cerv words. farm words, etc
The writer has tried this out in
the following way. Every other day
each Of the class was asked to copy
from the reading lesson fifteen words
that he thought that he ought 70
know how TO spell. The lists were
passed TO the teacher. He took a
list. pronounced a word and asked
how many had IT, As a word was
accepted by the teacher. IL was writ
ten on the blackboard by n pupil and
copied by the class. A list Of twenty
was thus selected and that became
the lesson 10 be written the next day.
Not many words were misspellei
When the class Of twenty-six pupils,
seventh and eighth grades, wrote in
the classroom a set Of compositions
running from $50 to 300 words, the
misspellings averaged less than one
and a half 10 each writer. The words
missed were almost all words that had
not occurred in their spelling lessons.
The psychology Of this case seems
to the writer to be this:
Spelling was associated with read
ing and writing, where II belongs.
The words to be spelled were not
strangers. They had meaning and
thought association.
The words selected were seen
Alright and carefully at first sight.
They had TO be copied.
The finder had some personal in
terest in his words.
Many other words were noticed by
the finder, words that he did not
select.
Most Of the words were copied
twice and associated with their pro-
nunciation before they were studied.
The words were studied from their
written form, from the very hand
writing in which they were TO be re-
produced. There was no confusion
Of images.
After smelling the missneIled