SCHOOLBOY SPELLING
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Mr. Grenfell's article on " Schoolboy Spelling " interests me greatly, especially because a casual remark seems to support a theory I have long held : that, in general, girls spell better than boys. Such was the case in my own family and enough instances have come to may notice to confirm this impression. One question I should like to ask—do children taught by the phonetic method spell less correctly than others ? My experience is slight, but when I asked what happened when they reached tough and dough I was told these must be visualized. Why not visualize the lot, as I was taught sixty years ago, or by Mr. Grenfell's admirable method ?
My small grandson was being taught by the phonetic method ; when his father, a good linguist, heard this he remarked that German could be learned by that system, for so he had acquired it ; French and Italian might be so learnt ; but English, emphatically, never, adding that attempting it with the child would delay learning to read. Another child of my acquaintance, taught by the phonetic method, has just gone to a preparatory school where he is struggling to unlearn it in order that he may learn to spell correctly.
I should like to be informed what advantage there is in learning to spell love, luv, when it is not so found in books the child must study.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Bradlegh End, Ottery St. Mary. FRANCES ROSE-TROUP.
Previous page
