and pupils alike. The spelling-lesson sets a brake against the orderly, reasonable, and natural course of education that not only impedes its progress as a whole, but impairs the efficiency of the working parts of its human machinery. It introduces an element of friction that raises the nervous temperature above normal, causes needless wear and tear, and is destructiv of both temper and material.
Better methods of spelling, accordingly, wil effect savings that can not be adequately represented in their entirety; but it is at least obvious that the more their the betterment, the les wil be the waste. To those who love children, and their neighbors as themselvs, the indeterminable saving of human energy and efficiency wil appear no les worth while than those economies that may be set down in terms of time and mony.
Words Wil Be Shorter
Simplified spelling means shorter spelling. Of the 32 Rules printed in Part 3 of this Handbook, 27 drop letters from words as now speld; 3 involv transpositions of letters to reconcile conflicting analogies; and 2 involv substitutions of one letter for another, with the same object. In no instance has the Board recommended a change involving the addition of a letter to a word. Further simplifications wil result in further abbreviations. A completely fonetic sistem of notation, indeed, would cause some words to be speld with more letters than at present such, for instance, as those that now represent the sound of a difthong by a single caracter. By and bind ar examples, y and i respectivly representing a difthong that would be indicated fonetically By the two vowels composing it—a (as in artistic) and i (as in it).
