SPEKE 



5490 



SPELLING 



it is a simple matter to calculate the distance 

 covered. . 



SPEKE, speek, JOHN BANNING (1827-1864), 

 a famous English explorer, the discoverer of 

 the source of the Nile River. He was born at 

 Jordans, in Somersetshire, and entered the army 

 when a boy of seventeen. During his service in 

 India he explored parts of the Himalaya Moun- 

 tains, crossing into Tibet, and in 1854 he went 

 with Sir Richard Burton on his first expedition 

 to Africa. After serving in the Crimean War 

 he again accompanied Burton to Africa, their 

 purpose being the exploration of the great lakes 

 which report declared existed in the center of 

 the continent. Lake Tanganyika was discov- 

 ered, and in August, 1858, during the illness of 

 Burton, Speke discovered the Victoria Nyanza, 

 which he rightly considered the source of the 

 Nile. 



Burton discredited the theory, but in 1860 

 Speke was put in charge of an expedition for 

 the further exploration of the Nile sources, with 

 the result that the outlet of the lake into the 

 river was found. Meeting Sir Samuel Baker, 

 Speke gave him information which led to the 

 discovery of the Albert Nyanza. His pub- 

 lished accounts of his journeys appeared as 

 What Led to the Discovery of the Source of 

 the Nile and Journal of the Discovery of the 

 Source of the Nile. 



SPELLING, spel'ing. The ability to spell is 

 everywhere taken for granted as one of the 

 very basic facts of education. A man may 

 "have no head" for mathematics; his penman- 

 ship may be almost illegible; he may have 

 neglected literature entirely in his love for 

 science; and yet those with whom he comes 

 in contact may be ready enough to judge him 

 a well-educated man. But if he misspells even 

 those troublesome words which seem to lie in 

 wait to catch the unwary he has proclaimed 

 himself to his public as an uneducated man. 

 True, such a judgment is often unjust, but it 

 persists; and it is this tendency to judge a 

 man's education by his spelling that gives to 

 the subject its importance in school. 



This importance has always been recognized, 

 and a stress has been laid on the teaching of 

 spelling -which is somewhat out of proportion 

 to its real importance in life. But the subject 

 has always presented difficulties to such teach- 

 ers as wish to make their teaching really vital. 

 It seems a mechanical study, requiring practi- 

 cally no skill on the part of the teacher and 

 furnishing little or no motive to the learner. 

 A pupil studies his spelling lesson doggedly, as 



a stupid task imposed on him by authority, but 

 it does not touch any of the interests of his 

 life. Even the teacher who is willing to seek 

 far afield for illuminating subject-matter who 

 can make a history or reading lesson as enter- 

 taining as a game is likely to find herself 

 baffled by the spelling lesson. 



The Change in Method. There has been, 

 however, in recent years, a decided change in 

 the methods of teaching spelling; an organiza- 

 tion of its facts and a relating of them to 

 everyday concerns. The old method was com- 

 prised in the one word drill. Lists of words, 

 frequently unrelated, were assigned, and these 

 the pupil muttered over to himself until he felt 

 that sheer repetition had engraved them on his 

 memory. The recitation consisted of the writ- 

 ing or spelling aloud of these words; and the 

 teacher sometimes felt that she was imparting 

 a touch of originality when she changed the 

 order of the words, that the pupil might not 

 have the mechanical assistance of an arrange- 

 ment learned by heart. If pupils could not 

 spell, their parents and even their teachers felt 

 that what was needed was more drill. 



In comparatively recent years, however, it 

 has come to be an understood fact that drill 

 is at the best but a clumsy tool; that a little 

 earnest thought will take the place of a great 

 deal of drilling. 



To-day the difference is noticeable even in 

 the assignment of the lesson. Possible mis- 

 takes are pointed out, modes of study are sug- 

 gested, and devices are introduced for inter- 

 esting the pupils in the derivation, meaning 

 and proper use of words. Then, too, the spell- 

 ing is kept so far as possible within the range 

 of the pupil's interest; he is asked to spell only 

 such words as he feels the need of knowing 

 how to spell only the words which are in his 

 vocabulary. When it seems desirable to intro- 

 duce new words, this is accomplished indirectly ; 

 the pupil is given the new experience, is then 

 taught the words which describe it, and so is 

 brought to feel, quite naturally, the necessity 

 for learning how to spell the new words. This, 

 of course, is the ideal method, but various 

 modifications of it are necessary, since all pu- 

 pils do not learn and use the same words at 

 the same age and grade in school. Present-day 

 textbooks, however, are based on the classroom 

 experiences of many teachers, and so strike an 

 excellent average. Each teacher, too, may sup- 

 plement the textbook with grade lists, class 

 lists and personal or individual lists, according 

 to the needs of each pupil. 



