LEARNING TO SPELL
A Manual for Teachers Using the
ALDINE SPELLER

BY

CATHERINE T. BRYCE

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION YALE UNIVERSITY

FRANK J. SHERMAN

FORMERLY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS DANVERS, MASSACHUSETTS

AND

ARTHUR W. KALLOM

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF EDUCATIONAL INVESTIGATION AND MEASUREMENTS, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

NEW YORK

NEWSON & COMPANY

Are we spelling as well in our schools today as our forefathersdid in the little red schoolhouse? This is the questionthat has been asked many times but no one has beenable to answer it in any convincing way. There have beenadvocates of both sides of the question. The fact remainsthat no one knows. We do not know how well childrencould spell fifty, or even twenty-five, years ago. As timegoes by there is a glamour thrown over the past and we seeonly the high lights. We remember that in spelling a matchthere was a certain boy, or girl, who spelled down the entireschool time after time, or possibly had a reputation forbeing the best speller in the entire county. When a spellingmatch was announced it was a foregone conclusion thatthe victory lay between two or three pupils. How manychildren of the eighth grade could spell the following listof words?

We remember the pupils who were able to spell thesedifficult words, and we forget those who were unable to spell4them. We remember the good spellers and forget how manypoor ones there were.

The question is not whether one or two could spell, orlearn to spell such words, but could nearly every pupil inthe school spell such words? If they could, what use didthey make of their knowledge? The corollary to theproposition is, how many were unable to spell “which,”“there,” “writing,” “guess,” and a thousand other commonwords? The question then is fairly before us; viz., Whatis the object of teaching spelling?

Object of Teaching Spelling

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