MAX MULLER ON SPELLING.

Manawatu Times, Volume II, Issue 22, 3 January 1877, Page 2

MAX MULLER ON SPELLING.

:-■. -»■■- -.- \ According to the authority ra v .Mr Edward Jones, 8.A., a great experience, it now takes from^zc to seven years to learn the arts of readi ing and spelling -with a fair degree; oi intelligence— r-a-e., about 200Q hours £ and to many minds the difficulties , o£ orthography are insurmountable.. The-: bulk of the children -pass through |h$ Government schools without haying |uj* quired the ability to read with ease andl intelligence. - ■ \ i After a careful examination of young; mefrand women from thirteen to twenty years of age m the factories of Birmingk hami it was proved that only four and 4 half per cent, were able to read a simple sentence from an ordinary school-book with intelligence and accuracy. . This appEes to the lower classes. ißyb with regard^to the higher classes the case seems almost worse ; for Dr Morell^ m his " Manual of Spelling," asserts that out of 1,972 failures m the Civil Service examinations-, 1,8661 candidates were plucked for spelling. 'So much for the pupils. Among the teachers .theniselves it was .found m America that out; of one hundred common words, the. be|t, speller among the eighty or ninesy, teachers examined failed m one, sonjp, prizetakers failed m four or five^an^l some others missed .over- forty. \ Th^ Deputy State Superintendent declatfad that on an average, the teachers of the State would fail m spelling to the ex^tent of twenty-five per cent.