Mr. Boyle, one of the most active men engaged in this
work, is
now lecturing in New York to crowded houses. The Tribune, in reply to a
correspondent, makes the following statement of what Phonography is
intended to accomplish:
Phonotpy.--"What do Andrews & Boyle propose to accomplish? You know
something of it, Mr. Editor, so let us have an idea of what you actually
mean when speaking so gravely of the Writing and Printing Reformation."
Such remarks as the above are not unfrequently made to us. We answer
unhesitatingly, that we are in favor of having the orthography of our
language simplified. These is no disguising the fact, that however
difficult it may be to accomplish, still a change, a radical
change, is desirable, and as it is desirable and right that we should
have it, we must and will have it. Learning to read is
too difficult an affair to be endured much longer, according to the
brain-deadening system. What a tedious, troublesome, wearing heart
dulling, mind killing piece of business it is, for the child of a
foreigner to be obliged to learn by heart, column after column, the
mode of spelling every word in the language! There is no task more
disheartening to the master, or repulsive to the scholar--none which
tends to give children a greater distaste for books--none upon which so
many years of toil are consumed. No wonder that the boy sighs for
holidays to escape from such drudgery. Every effort of educationists to
make the school attractive to the scholar, will be comparatively
useless--every effort made by missionaries and leading societies to spread
a knowledge of our language will be comparatively abortive, until a
National System of spelling takes the place of the present caricature which
is signified as "the just method of spelling words."
Why, among the 3,200 monosyllables of our language only 34 are pronounced as they are spelled. The child then must learn the other 3,166 by heart;--the pronunciation of spelling of one word giving him no clue to that of another, but on the contrary, tending to mislead him. How many years will it take him to accomplish this feat? How many educated men can spell every word in the language? What useful arts and sciences might not the child be successfully pursuing instead of being thus frightfully occupied?--are questions that naturally suggest themselves to the philanthropist and educationist, when he hears that by a change in our method of printing--so slight that those who read the present method can be taught in a few minutes,--the labor of learning to read can be reduced to a few weeks. This has been actually accomplished by Mr. Boyle, who taught a class of unlettered negro adults to read in seventy-two hours.--We shall as far as is consistent with our duties, keep our readers informed of the progress of the reform.
