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Show Tbe Spelling Book. Experience has confirmed my bellil in Uie use of a good, text book as a necessity.. While I would make judicious selections from the history, his-tory, geography and reading book, rwould rely mainly upon the spelling spell-ing book, since tbe vocabulary ramithed by tbe others is too meagre. "Tnere is, even now, a conflict! opinion amonguthoritles as Jto the success of our instruction In this' department The supervisors, whd examine the written work of our pupils at the close of tbe year, pronounce pro-nounce It very goodjand they cite results to prove tt- The high school men, on tbe other hand, declare that tbe spelling or the .pupils who pome to them, and they get a large percentage of the best scholars, Js yery-unsatlsfactoryt and they present pre-sent facta y-blch tecnt to Justlfy-tbslr Justlfy-tbslr opinions. Can these diverts verdicts be ex plained and If so in what way? I think they cau. "The words used by pupil In their diploma examinations are words Included In-cluded In the vocnbiihtry with which they have 'become familiar; uron tbem they secure good, results. When, however, the same boa and girls go to high schools or seek and secure positions in store or ofltce, they are brought at once in contact with a new class pf words which are outside the range of their drill, and on these they fall and the instruction in-struction in spelling is condemned. There are'barrr spellers" who mynel bdt Httle instruction. There are (how who will perpetually perpetu-ally reinaiu "miserable spellers" regardless re-gardless ofany pains which may be taken wlth-tllem. What hall be dono with the great majority who come betn een these two. extrcrues7 Drill, diill, and keep drilling from a texr book. Let Uie Ixjok be a good one and teach it well. Tho difference between sood and lad tearlifntr miv lw tihowu in this- branch, as well as In any other,,. Many f-ecru to think that If only pnpils are caused to see words frequently fre-quently tliey will unconsciously learn to spell them correcly. The idea Is faJ-e. The average pupil must be drilled upon tbem To illustrate, il-lustrate, I will present a case width rcceutlyrfame under my own observation. ob-servation. I was siltirg at the detk of one of my assistants, who has a -cLbs which had been alout nice weeks in the grammar school. Upon tlie desk lay a pile of geography examination papers, and as T glanced over them I was so struck with tho great variety of combinations used In tbe attempt to spell the word "geography" that I immediately wrote down the ruu!t, from which it appeared that in a class of .fifty four pupils there were twenty-seven different methods of spelling the word. I was amazed. These children had bad, many of tbei, excellent teacher. They wire of average E rentage and home culture, and d passed a good examination upon entering the grammar school. More than this," the word In question had been for nine weeks before them in the text-book from which they had been studying; but since they bad not been drilled upon that particular par-ticular word the reenlis were us I ha,Te, indicated 'JranviUe D. ld. nam in Wide Atcale. |