HOW SPELLING DAMAGES THE MIND. 64 1 



The effect on the mind is certainly no better. The Chinese have to 

 memorize a compound symbol for each word in learning to read, but 

 the patient endurance of such a burden is not consistent with the char- 

 acter of any other people than the submissive, imitative, unprogressive 

 Chinese. The Japanese, who have long been clogged by the same 

 system, have recently taken measures to throw it off. 



"But what can be done ? " will be asked ; "shall children grow up 

 without learning to spell ? " No, but the memorizing of these anomalies 

 and contradictions can be, at least, put off till the pupils' minds are 

 in little danger of being perverted by it. Enough of the enormous 

 amount of time spent in this drudgery can be saved to make possible 

 the introduction of the study of things into the primary schools, and 

 many of the one hundred millions of dollars which we spend each year 

 for public education can be turned to imparting real knowledge instead 

 of the mere tools of knowledge. These ends may be attained by the 

 use of phonetic spelling as an introduction to the customary spelling. 

 Children can and do learn to read English spelled phonetically in a very 

 few lessons, and learn the traditional spelling so quickly afterward 

 that much less time is required for the whole process than is commonly 

 devoted to memorizing the current spelling alone. Classes taught to 

 read in this way, in Massachusetts, so early as 1851, proved the advan- 

 tage of the method to the satisfaction of that able educator, Horace 

 Mann, and the method has been successfully employed in many 

 places in this country and in the British Isles. The following ex- 

 tract from a letter written by Mr. William Colbourne, manager of 

 the Dorset Bank, at Sturminster, England, since deceased, furnishes 

 a special example, though it may be conceded to be exceptionally fa- 

 vorable : 



" My little Sidney, who is now a few months more than four 

 years old, will read any phonetic book without the slightest hesita- 

 tion ; the hardest names or the longest words in the Old or New 

 Testament form no obstacle to him. And how long do you think it 

 took me for I am his teacher to impart to him this power ? Why, 

 something less than eight hours ! You may believe it or not as you 

 like, but I am confident that not more than that amount of time was 

 spent on him, and that was in snatches of five minutes at a time, while 

 tea was getting ready. I know you will be inclined to say : * All that 

 is very well, but what is the use of reading phonetic books ? He is 

 still as far off, and may be farther, from reading romanic books.' But 

 in this you are mistaken. Take another example. His next elder 

 brother, a boy of six years, has had a phonetic education so far. 

 What is the consequence ? Why, reading in the first stage was so 

 delightful and easy a thing to him, that he taught himself to read 

 romanically, and it womld be a difficult matter to find one boy in 

 twenty, of a corresponding age, that could read half so well as he can 

 in any book. Again, my oldest boy has written more phonetic short- 



TOL. XXVII. 41 



