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In 1864, Pronouncing Orthography was released as a simplified version of traditional English orthography to help children learn to read more quickly and easily; it became widely adopted by the United States public school system and incorporated into most basal reading schemes of the time. It aimed to improve literacy education by eliminating the irregularities of conventional English orthography and adhering to the alphabetic principle, wherein every letter represented a specific sound. This allowed children to read words by combining elementary sounds using phonics.
William Torrey Harris promoted Pronouncing Orthography after its invention by Dr Edwin Leigh who was inspired by another orthography called Phonotypy. This method resulted in children learning to read approximately 12 months faster than with traditional English orthography.
Children who used this method became self-reliant, diligent, and happy learners. When they transitioned back to traditional English orthography, they were better at spelling and became logical and analytical thinkers instead of relying on learning by rote. Teachers who used the method preferred it over conventional teaching.
Although Pronouncing Orthography was the formal name of the new orthography, publishers and educationists recognised that many people did not know what an orthography was; consequently, it was known by many different names, including: - Leigh Print, [1] Leigh's Phonetic Type, [2] Leigh's Phonetic Method, [3] Leigh's Pronouncing Edition of... [image 1] after Dr Edwin Leigh, who devised the new orthography. It was also sometimes known as Phonetic Orthography.
Pronouncing Orthography was used to teach literacy; children were taught to read and write in a phonemic orthography and then transitioned to conventional English orthography. The concept originated when a predecessor, orthography, English Phonotypic Alphabet aka Phonotypy, was trialled to teach literacy and promote orthographic reform. Surprisingly, the newly literate transitioned effortlessly to conventional English, so the pedagogical theory developed that the best way to teach literacy was through an interim phonemic orthography. [4] [5] To this purpose, many orthographies have been developed and trialled, but only three have been widely adopted by public school systems, and these are: - Phonotypy (1845), Pronouncing Orthography (1864) and the Initial Teaching Alphabet (1960). [6] [7]
The idea that the phonemic irregularity of the English language was a major cause of the poor levels of literacy in the English-speaking world had been well established in the mid-19th century by works such as Alexander John Ellis's treatise Plea for Phonetic Spelling, or the Necessity of Orthographic Reform, in 1848. [8] [note 1] Dr Edwin Leigh himself published a report quantifying the levels of illiteracy in the United States, [9] which he used to advocate for his Pronouncing Orthography. [10]
Dr Edwin Leigh enthusiastically adopted Phonotypy as soon as it was published, so in 1846, he taught his daughter to read using Phonotypy; then, in 1849, he taught a class of fugitive slaves in Boston, which led him to set up the Boston phonetic school in 1850 which he used as a springboard to introduce phonetic teaching into the schools of Somerville, Massachusetts. In 1859, he used Phonotypy in evening classes to teach illiterate adults in St Louis, Missouri, where he tried unsuccessfully to introduce Phonotypy into the public school system. [11]
Leigh was convinced of the efficacy of Phonotypy as a tool to teach literacy but realised that parents, teachers and school district officials were sceptical as they could not read the writing used by their children. [11] [note 2] Leigh was aware that Phonotypy had been designed for a multiplicity of purposes, [note 3] but it was never designed to be a transitory mechanism towards literacy. Leigh reasoned that a much simpler interim teaching orthography was needed to improve literacy, which closely resembled standard English orthography for acceptance. Consequently, Leigh spent 20 years designing and refining his own interim teaching orthography. [13]
Leigh published his design of Pronouncing Orthography in a pamphlet in 1864, [14] which he then promoted in learned education journals and through touring lectures. Leigh trialled the orthography in a school within his own school district of St Louis in 1866 and published the successful results. Gradually, publishers of the popular basal reading schemes released versions of their reading books in Pronouncing Orthography in tandem with school districts adopting the method, who in return vouched for its success in their annual reports.
Reading was taught in the United States of America during the mid-19th century using popular basal reading schemes consisting of primers & readers. The majority of which were re-published in Leigh's Pronouncing Orthography, and are listed below: - [15]
Author | Co-Author | Editor | Title | Year | View | Cite |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
G.S. Hillard | - | E. Leigh | Hillard's Primer. Edited in Pronouncing Orthography. | 1866 | Link | [16] |
G.S. Hillard | L.J. Campbell | E. Leigh | Leigh's Hillard's Second Reader, in Pronouncing Orthography | 1868 | - | [17] |
G.S. Hillard | L.J. Campbell | E. Leigh | Franklin Primer or First Reader - Leigh's Pronouncing Edition | 1873 | Link | [18] |
G.S. Hillard | L.J. Campbell | E. Leigh | Franklin Second Reader - Leigh's Pronouncing Edition | 1873 | Link | [19] |
- | - | E. Leigh | The Graded First Reader. Edited in Pronouncing Orthography. | 1874 | [PDFs 1] | [20] |
- | - | E. Leigh | The Graded Second Reader. Edited in [Leigh's] pronouncing orthography. | 1875 | [PDFs 2] | [21] |
J.R. Edwards | - | E. Leigh | Analytical First Reader. Edited in Pronouncing Orthography. | 1864 | - | [22] |
F.A. March | - | E. Leigh | March's A-B-C book | 1881 | - | [23] |
W.H. McGuffey | - | E. Leigh | Leigh's McGuffey's New Primary Reader in Pronouncing Orthography | 1864 | - | [24] |
W.H. McGuffey | - | E. Leigh | Leigh's McGuffey's New Eclectic Primer in Pronouncing Orthography. | 1868 | - | [25] |
L.B. Monroe | - | E. Leigh | The First Reader. Edited in Pronouncing Orthography by Edwin Leigh. | 1864 | [PDFs 3] | [26] |
Y. Sargent | - | E. Leigh | Sargent's Standard Primer. Edited in Pronouncing Orthography. | 1866 | - | [28] |
C.W. Sanders | - | E. Leigh | Leigh's Sanders' Union Pictorial Primer, in Pronouncing Orthography | 1868 | - | [29] |
C.W. Sanders | - | E. Leigh | Leigh's Sanders' Union Reader, Number one, for Primary Schools and Families | 1868 | - | [30] |
J.M. Watson | - | E. Leigh | Leigh's Watson's National School Primer in Pronouncing Orthography. | 1867 | - | [31] |
J.M. Watson | - | E. Leigh | Independent 1st-6th Reader. Edited in Pronouncing Orthography by Edwin Leigh. | 1867 | - | [33] |
In the mid-19th century, the bible was extensively read by children in schools; as such, Leigh translated two gospels into Pronouncing Orthography: -
Leigh simply converted existing basal reading schemes to Pronouncing Orthography for expediency. The existing basal schemes were orientated towards various methods, including the phonetic and word methods or combinations of the two. Hence, he was agnostic about how teachers taught literacy as he presumed the benefits of phonetic understanding would be secured by simply using his orthography regardless of how it was taught. [36] [37] [image 2]
Conversely, the principal advocates of Pronouncing Orthography, superintendents William Torrey Harris of St Louis and John Philbrick of Boston, were both adamant proponents of the phonetic method; they merely considered Pronouncing Orthography as a useful tool in support of phonetic teaching. Other school districts such as New York, followed Leigh's guidance and allowed Pronouncing Orthography to be taught with different methods, but even here, by 1872–73, it was concluded by assistant superintendent Calkins that the phonetic method was superior. [38]
Over the period of its usage, Pronouncing Orthography was assessed in education journals, [39] [40] [41] and in reports of the American public school system, where the following advantages were documented: -
It is desirable that the child who is just commencing his education should have something consistent and logical ,methodical and philosophical to employ his mind upon rather than something without either analogy or system for these first impressions have the power to change and fix the whole bent of the mind...[Superintendent William Torrey Harris] [48]
The 1878 Boston headmaster survey demonstrated that as schools gained experience of using Pronouncing Orthography so they became in-favour of its use. [46]
Headmaster Survey of 1878 | In-Favour | Undecided | Opposed |
---|---|---|---|
> 5 Years Experience of Pronouncing Orthography | 15 | 0 | 0 |
< 2 Years Experience of Pronouncing Orthography | 1 | 3 | 1 |
At the Vienna Exposition of 1873, Dr Edwin Leigh was awarded the Medal of Progress [49] as a recognition of merit for his invention of Pronouncing Orthography. [50]
As with all phonemic orthographies, the principal objective of Leigh's new orthography was to enable children to correctly convert written words to speech regardless of whether the child was pre-acquainted with a particular word or not. A child can quickly and easily learn to read by knowing a consistent set of rules that convert letters to sounds. In contrast, standard English orthography's myriad rules and exceptions made this difficult. [51]
Secondly, Leigh wanted to avoid prejudice similar to that encountered against phonotypy in St. Louis by making his new orthography familiar to standard English orthography, so the Latin alphabet and spelling conventions were fully retained. [52] Instead, Leigh introduced phonetic regularity by making silent letters in words faint, so children were aware they should be ignored. [53] Leigh also subtly embellished other letters so children were explicitly aware of the sound made by those vocal letters. [54] [image 3] In this way, Leigh hoped that the familiarity of the new orthography would persuade the detractors to accept the new orthography whilst children would still see through this veneer to read with phonetic clarity.
The desire to speak eloquently and, in particular, to have correct received pronunciation was common in Britain and America during the 19th century, with the study of English orthoepy at its zenith. One feature of phonetic orthographies was that they converted written words into a single consistent form of pronunciation, which would often differ from the pronunciations used by people with different accents or regional dialects. In the 19th century, this feature of phonetic orthographies was considered a great benefit as children would learn new words in received pronunciation. [55] To this end, Leigh utilised the pronouncing dictionaries of John Walker & Benjamin Humphrey Smart, two of the leading orthoepists of the time to ensure his orthography resulted in correct pronunciation. [56] To emphasise this objective, Leigh called his new orthography, Pronouncing Orthography. [image 4]
Controversially, Leigh separated learning to read from learning to write; he described his position in his report to the Boston school committee: -
As to script, I stated my own conviction that it has no proper connection with learning to read and my desire to know from the writing master whether the habits formed by such writing of such words on the slate by so young learners will not have a bad influence upon their future handwriting and whether they will not acquire the art better at a later period and by exercises designed specially for the acquisition of good habits and skill in penmanship....[Dr Edwin Leigh] [57]
Leigh also had no hand-written script versions of his letters because he relied on small, subtle embellishments to letters which were identifiable in print but unrecognisable in children's hand-writing. Leigh suggested children should learn to read using his orthography and then transition to standard English orthography, where they would learn to write. [58]
In reality, Leigh's orthography did not lend itself to writing because of the asymmetrical application of the alphabetical principle. So every letter (grapheme) equated to a single sound (phoneme), allowing children to read with absolute certainty, but every sound (phoneme) equated to a multitude of possible letters (graphemes), meaning children would not know with certainty how to write an unfamiliar word. [59] This was necessary to keep words written in Pronouncing Orthography resembling those in conventional English orthography. [image 5]
Leigh considered the sequence in which Pronouncing Orthography could be taught when he segmented letter sounds into four utterance categories: -
He suggested avoiding teaching category IV sounds using Pronouncing Orthography and instead waiting until the child has transitioned to conventional orthography, whilst the other categories are taught in sequence. [60] [image 6]
Pronouncing Orthography started to gradually fall into disuse in the later part of the 1870s and into the 1880s for two main reasons: -
Most people initially learnt to read in early childhood. Subsequently, they read naturally through automaticity in reading, so by adulthood, they were unaware of the complex and abstract nature of learning literacy. Instead, most people had a preconceived notion that learning to read should be a simplistic activity based on reading aloud basic primers with children. When faced with an alternate orthography that many found bewildering and explanations from educationalists they could not comprehend, many people became adamantly opposed, often using anti-intellectual arguments against the evidence. [61]
In 1879, the new Superintendent, Samuel Elliott, withdrew Leigh's Pronouncing Orthography, documenting his prejudicial reasons: -
If the child's home is one which has its books, the use of them will not prepare him for the primer which we put into his hands. It is unlike the nursery stories which he has been looking at, if not reading; it has a strange look, particularly on the inside, where characters he has never seen stare at him out of nearly every line... but the strangeness of any book at all is almost stupefying...[Superintendent Samuel Eliot] [62] [61]
In New York, there was external pressure from outside the school system from people who did not understand the concept of Pronouncing Orthography and considered it complex, expensive and an unnecessary ornamental branch of education. The New York Board of Education bowed to this pressure despite their previous acknowledgement of the superiority of Pronouncing Orthography. [63]
The prevailing pedagogical theory that teaching literacy was best achieved through using an intermediate phonemic orthography was challenged by an educationalist named George L. Farnham, who had sponsored the use of Phonotypy to teach literacy in Syracuse, New York. Upon its initial success, he became a staunch advocate but subsequently noticed the main deficiency in the method; this was that children learned to read too quickly and failed to comprehend meaning. To address this perceived problem, Farnham invented the Sentence Method, which he published in 1881, [64] and widely promoted in the learned educational journals of the time. [65] [66] In modern times, the method has been completely discredited. [67]
Leigh's Pronunciation Orthography became widely adopted in America in the late 1860s. The American public school system was publicly funded so was obliged to keep records, consequently, some public school boards published a detailed account of the usage of Pronouncing Orthography, in particular: - St Louis, Missouri, Boston, New York and Washington.
Dr Edwin Leigh was closely associated with the St Louis public school system, having served as a teacher for seven years. [68] In 1866, Leigh trialled his Pronouncing Orthography in Clay School, where Miss Helen Smith, a recently qualified teacher, carried out a controlled experiment in which she taught two classes, one in pronouncing orthography and the other in standard orthography, allowing a like-for-like comparison. The result was spectacular with children taught in Pronouncing Orthography pulling 3 quarters ahead of those taught in conventional orthography. [69] [70] [image 7]
William Torrey Harris had been the principal at Clay School during the trial and was later promoted to superintendent of St Louis public schools. [70] Having seen the results of the new method first-hand, he reported upon the marked improvement in children's articulation and spelling and the fact they learnt to read quickly using this method. [71] Based on this success, the St. Louis Board of Education sanctioned the city-wide adoption of the new phonetic system from the 1867–1868 academic year. [72] Harris, summarised the effect of this decision: -
The introduction of Leigh's Phonetic System into all of the primary departments was followed by better results than could have been anticipated … the sequel showed that pupils taught by the new system were far in advance of those taught the same length of time by the old plan....[Superintendent William Torrey Harris] [73]
Throughout his tenure as the Superintendent, Harris advocated for the superiority of Leigh's Pronouncing Orthography and the general advantage of phonetic teaching methods. [74] [75] [76] [77] [78] [79] [80] [81] In 1873, Harris reported that the new method had spread to the main cities of America: - New York, Washington and Boston, as well as other cities in the West. [82] Subsequently, in response to ongoing enquiries from around the country, Harris published a full report on the method in 1877. [83] Harris's successor, Edward Long, continued to use Leigh's method but was not a vocal advocate; in 1884, he stopped reporting on the methods and materials used to teach children literacy, so it is not known when Pronouncing Orthography stopped being used but was definitively used for at least 16 years in St Louis. [84]
Dr Edwin Leigh also had close associations with the Boston school system. In the 1867–68 academic year, the Boston Board of Education introduced Leigh's phonic system of teaching the first steps to reading. Some of Boston's teachers had already become acquainted with the method through their teacher training, so they immediately adopted the system and started to report excellent results from this first use. [85]
John Philbrick was the Superintendent of Boston's public schools. He recognised both the importance and the difficulty of initially learning to read. [86] Philbrick strongly advocated phonetics as the best method to teach literacy to children and considered Leigh's print an ingenious contrivance for facilitating the teaching of this method. [87] In 1870, Philbrick described the extraordinary results from using the new method: -
Such results in teaching the first steps in reading I had never before witnessed in any school whatever, and they certainly afford strong evidence in favor of the new pronouncing type. I am happy to be able to put in this evidence in favor of the pronouncing type which Dr. Leigh has taken so much pains to perfect and make known....[Superintendent John Philbrick] [88]
Philbrick continued to advocate for Leigh's Pronouncing Orthography until he relinquished his position as Superintendent to Samuel Elliott in the academic year 1877–78. [89] [90] [91] [92] [93] [94] [95] In his final Superintendent's report (1877–78), Philbrick published an influential closing report, summarising the outcomes from using Pronouncing Orthography. [96]
Leigh's Pronouncing Orthography was trialled in some New York schools in the academic year 1869–1870. [1] The following year the trial was hailed a success, and all New York schools were permitted to adopt the scheme with their choosing. [97] The Superintendent and his assistants continued to report on the success of Leigh's method in the subsequent years. [98] [99]
In 1871, The board of trustees of Washington public schools initiated a new course of study where Leigh's Pronouncing Orthography through Hillard's Primer & Second Readers were mandated along with Leigh's Sound Charts. [100]
...The results of the (Sentence Method) experiments were chronically invalid. Children who had been taught by his method were doing no more than reciting a learned script where all the stresses and syntax had been drilled to perfection. They were being compared to children who were decoding unseen text using phonic strategies and who had not reached automaticity, along with children who had been taught the word method and were encountering some words that they had not yet memorised. In terms of the spelling and writing, Farnham's charges were merely encoding a script they had learned to spell and write to perfection. Nevertheless, the results were taken on face value and the sentence method became an established part of elementary teacher instruction in the eastern United States training colleges.
Phonics is a method for teaching reading and writing to beginners. To use phonics is to teach the relationship between the sounds of the spoken language (phonemes), and the letters (graphemes) or groups of letters or syllables of the written language. Phonics is also known as the alphabetic principle or the alphabetic code. It can be used with any writing system that is alphabetic, such as that of English, Russian, and most other languages. Phonics is also sometimes used as part of the process of teaching Chinese people to read and write Chinese characters, which are not alphabetic, using pinyin, which is alphabetic.
In a written language, a logogram, also logograph or lexigraph, is a written character that represents a semantic component of a language, such as a word or morpheme. Chinese characters as used in Chinese as well as other languages are logograms, as are Egyptian hieroglyphs and characters in cuneiform script. A writing system that primarily uses logograms is called a logography. Non-logographic writing systems, such as alphabets and syllabaries, are phonemic: their individual symbols represent sounds directly and lack any inherent meaning. However, all known logographies have some phonetic component, generally based on the rebus principle, and the addition of a phonetic component to pure ideographs is considered to be a key innovation in enabling the writing system to adequately encode human language.
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William Torrey Harris was an American educator, philosopher, and lexicographer. He worked for nearly a quarter century in St. Louis, Missouri, where he taught school and served as Superintendent of Schools for twelve years. With Susan Blow, in 1873 he established the first permanent, public kindergarten in the country. He is also known for establishing high school as an integral part of public education.
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Sir Isaac James Pitman (known as James), KBE (14 August 1901 – 1 September 1985) was a publisher, senior civil servant, politician, and prominent educationalist with a lifelong passion for etymology, orthography, and pedagogy. He is best known for his attempt to improve children's literacy in the English-speaking world by means of an interim teaching orthography, known as the initial teaching alphabet or i.t.a. He was honoured with a knighthood in 1961 for his life accomplishments.
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Edwin Leigh (1815–1890) was an American educationalist who invented Pronouncing Orthography to improve literacy and elocution in American children in the late 19th century. The new orthography was widely adopted in the United States, with most basal reading schemes publishing versions for use with phonetic teaching methods. Education journals, governing bodies of public schools and teacher surveys reported that children learned to read 6–12 months faster with improved elocution, spelling and logical thinking in subjects like arithmetic. Leigh won the Medal of Progress at the Vienna Exposition of 1873 for his invention of Pronouncing Orthography.
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PAMPHLETS
JSTOR JOURNALS
BOOKS
PRIMERS
SCHOOL COMMITTEE - BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
[Massachusetts public school system published detailed records of the initial adoption and later discontinuance of Leigh's Pronunciation Orthography between 1867 and 1879].
Closing statement by Dr Edwin Leigh of progress made in the method
Suggestion for the Course of Study for Primary Schools - Reading
Philosophical reasons for dis-continuing usage of Leigh's Pronunciation Orthography as espoused by new Superintendent Samuel Eliot
BOARD OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS - ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI
[Missouri public school system published detailed records of the initial adoption but reporting of Leigh's method lapsed after 17 years; it was known to be used between 1867 and 1883].
Reading - In this connection also should be mentioned the phonetic modification of the alphabet by Dr Leigh. The introduction of this system at the Clay School the use of a primer printed in modified type proved to be productive of the most satisfactory results The class that finished it made very rapid progress in learning to spell in the common orthography after they were transferred to the ordinary type in the First Reader.
during the past year there is little to be added to what was said in the report of last year The introduction of Leigh's Phonetic System into all of the primary departments was followed by better results than could have been anticipated The primary teachers exhibited a commendable degree of energy and persistency in mastering the best method of teaching it and the sequel showed that pupils taught by the new system were far in advance of those taught the same length of time by the old plan
Leigh's Phonetic System - A four page essay details the arguments for a rational phonetic method for learning to read
The Phonetic system of teaching reading now used in all our primary grades is better adapted to the grasp of the childish understanding and gives the teacher so much more power over the youngest pupils that it will be safe to admit children of five years of age. Leigh's phonetic system of which I spoke at length last year continues to give the same satisfaction in this its fourth year of trial.
What I have said before regarding the success of Leigh's Phonetic or Pronouncing orthography I desire to repeat here with the additional force that new years of trial bring with them The time saved the clearness of enunciation the good spelling the strengthened intellect quickened by analytic training all these count in its favour as much as formerly.
Leigh's method of teaching reading continues to be as a success as in former years It saves half the time in the earliest years and secures better spelling and better standing of what is read It makes reading a pleasure to child and does much to influence him to read at home enabling the pupil to learn to read by analyzing words their elements and to combine them again from their elements
I am fully convinced that one half of the time usually spent in learning to read by the word method may be saved by the use of this system Its success in Burlington Peoria and other cities of the West in Washington New York and Boston go to prove that our enthusiasm over its use here is not the result of prejudice.
Teacher Training in Leigh's Phonetics. Printing of Phonetic characters on the blackboard In addition to the above work the forms and sounds of the phonetic characters as found in Leigh's Phonetic Primer also teaching exercises upon this subject Methods of teaching reading.
Text books used in the public schools, district schools, McGuffey's Leigh's Phonetic Primer, First Reader
Primary Reading - A full report on Dr Edwin Leigh's Phonetic System
Text books used in the public schools, district schools, McGuffey's Leigh's Phonetic Primer, First Reader
In the St Louis schools the primary instruction is considered to be of especial importance By the use of the phonetic system of learning to read invented by Dr Edwin Leigh at least one year is saved in learning to read The method uses a modified alphabet so formed that each character has one sound only Each letter in this alphabet resembles the corresponding letter of the ordinary alphabet so nearly that the general appearance of the words is preserved and a transition to the ordinary type is found quite easy after half a year's work in the new alphabet
Text books used in the public schools, district schools, McGuffey's Leigh's Phonetic Primer, First Reader
BOARD OF EDUCATION - NEW YORK CITY & COUNTY
[New York public school system published detailed records of the initial adoption and later discontinuance of Leigh's Pronunciation Orthography between 1869 and 1876].
The system invented by Dr Edwin Leigh which under the authority of the Board has been tried in several of the schools during the past year is designed to obviate all these difficulties and perplexities affording as it does by slight modifications in the ordinary forms of the letters a separate sign for every sound in the language The results of the experiments already made I think to be favorable to the merits and success of the system the pupils not only learning to read in a shorter time but to read more distinctly and fluently and what is even more important making the acquisition in a thoughtful and logical manner so that their common sense is never shocked by inconsistencies nor their natural intelligence baffled by arbitrary contradictions I have found too by my own examinations that the children having learned to read Dr Leigh's print pass without any difficulty or additional instruction or practice to ordinary print the customary forms of the words being so little affected by the slightly modified letters employed. These experiments will be continued so as to embrace one other grade at the close of which I will communicate the results in a special report to the Board. It is proper also to state that the teachers who have had charge of the classes undergoing this instruction are, I believe without exception, pleased with the results thus far attained.
The experiments in Dr Leigh's Pronouncing Orthography in progress at the time of the last report have been continued during the present year and the results have been very satisfactory. By recent action of your Board this method of teaching can now at the option of the Principals be used in all the schools and I trust that it will be more generally tried during the next year I feel convinced from the results already attained that it will prove the means of saving much valuable time both of teachers and pupils besides giving to the latter through their reading exercises far better mental training.
In this connection I will add that Dr Leigh's system of phonetic instruction continues to be used successfully in the schools where it was first introduced also that several other schools have commenced the use of books printed in his type I am satisfied that a proper use of this pronouncing orthography would be at tended with beneficial results in all of our schools.
I am still of the opinion that a proper use of this print during at least the first year of learning to read would facilitate the progress of the pupils in this branch So far as I have been able to ascertain those teachers who make themselves sufficiently familiar with the characters used in it to write them readily on the blackboard prefer them to the other form of letters during the first steps in teaching reading.
At the commencement of the year a change was however imperatively called for. It was the conviction of many that the course as then in operation was too complex and exacting and that it prescribed branches of study which consumed a large part of the time and efforts of the pupils without any adequate benefit The public mind had been influenced unfavorably toward our system in this respect the impression having become general that the cost of maintaining the public schools was unnecessarily increased by giving instruction in merely ornamental branches sometimes to the neglect of the more important ones The result of this agitation has been the entire revision of the course of instruction in the direction particularly of simplification and reduction and during the last four months the schools have been operating on the new basis…. In learning to read the children will not be permitted by the new course to waste their time in useless and impracticable phonetic lessons..
BOARD OF TRUSTEES of PUBLIC SCHOOLS - WASHINGTON
Leigh's Sound Charts and his edition of Hillard's Primer and Second Reader are generally and should be exclusively used.
In the New Course of Study Dr Leigh's Sound Charts and his edition of Hillard's Primer or First Reader and of the Second Reader are required to be used exclusively. This is an excellent feature, about ten years ago with many misgivings one of these charts was placed in the hands of a skilful Primary teacher for trial. There were doubts in regard to the method of teaching reading by sounds. Everyone was confident that the transition from the phonetic form of print to the common would prove to be a most serious objection, and it was moreover quite certain that the new system could be taught only by an expert who had been specially trained for the purpose. Contrary to all expectations, however, the first year's trial was by no means a failure, and the use of these charts by any of the teachers who desired it was authorized by the Board from that time to the present there has been a gradual increase in their use brought about entirely by the evident superiority of the system. Teachers of ordinary intelligence without any special instruction readily take up this method of teaching, and it has been found that pupils thus taught can thereby save six months of their valuable time that the reading of these pupils is decidedly superior and that the transition to the common form of print is without difficulty and the work of but a week I believe that in commencing to learn our language the phonetic system is the best and that the very ingenious form of presenting it invented by Dr Leigh is destined to come into general use.
Leigh's Sound Charts and his edition of Hillard's Primer and Second Reader are generally and should be exclusively used.
Leigh's Sound Charts and his edition of Hillard's Primer and Second Reader are generally and should be exclusively used.
..but there are many adults as well as children whose school attendance has been prematurely abridged or entirely neglected and who cannot be gathered into the regular day school … and whose ability to read the language should be facilitated by textbooks and methods different from those in general use like those of Dr Leigh.
SCHOOL COMMITTEE - WALTHAM, MASSACHUSETTS
...It has been proved in repeated experiments that if a child, upon first learning letters, is taught the Phonetic Alphabet, and is confined to Phonetic books for the first 6-8 months of schooling, he will at the end of his first year's schooling read common print and spell in common spelling better than children ordinarily do, at the end of 4-5 years of schooling.
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