Are we spelling as well in our schools today as our forefathers did in
the little red schoolhouse? This is the question that has been asked
many times but no one has been able to answer it in any convincing way.
There have been advocates of both sides of the question. The fact
remains that no one knows. We do not know how well children could spell
fifty, or even twenty-five, years ago. As time goes by there is a
glamour thrown over the past and we see only the high lights. We
remember that in spelling a match there was a certain boy, or girl, who
spelled down the entire school time after time, or possibly had a
reputation for being the best speller in the entire county. When a
spelling match was announced it was a foregone conclusion that the
victory lay between two or three pupils. How many children of the eighth
grade could spell the following list of words?
phthisicky
ichthyology
abstemious
demoniacal
magisterial
convalesce
calligraphy
saccharin
We remember the pupils who were able to spell these difficult words, and
we forget those who were unable to spell them. We remember the good
spellers and forget how many poor ones there were.
The question is not whether one or two could spell, or learn to spell
such words, but could nearly every pupil in the school spell such words?
If they could, what use did they make of their knowledge? The corollary
to the proposition is, how many were unable to spell “which,” “there,”
“writing,” “guess,” and a thousand other common words? The question then
is fairly before us; viz., _What is the object of teaching spelling?_