It has been well said that “interest is nine-tenths of education.” This
is true in teaching spelling. Any means which will arouse interest in
mastering words is likely to be effective. So far as our forefathers
succeeded in securing results in this subject they did so by interest
in the old-fashioned “spelling-bee.” Spelling matches of various sorts
are desirable for creating interest. The review lists and special lists
will be found admirable for this purpose. It should be remembered,
however, that this is testing what is already learned and is not teaching
something new.