Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 88, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1915 — Some Spellers, Those Kokomoans. [ARTICLE]

Some Spellers, Those Kokomoans.

Kokomo, Ind., February B’.-—Sup-erintendent of schools Haworth recently planned a spelling contest. Newspaper men, doctors, lawyers, merchants, teachers and scholars were asked to submit lists of twenty words, which, in their opinion, children of the grades should be liable to spell. From the lists twenty words were'chosen for the spelling match. The list was given as a test to the school principals, then to the teachers, the high school and the eighth grade students and to various otherpersons—street car conductors, housemaids, street sweepers, doctors, lawyers, ministers, carpenters, bankers, salesmen, machinists and others. Six hundred and twenty persons took the test. Firty-two made perfect scores. Of the teachers taking the test the sixteen men averaged R1i.06 per cent and the seventy-six women 91.51 per cent. In the high school fi tty-eight boys and JO4 gi rls made 75.77 and 78.65 per cent, respectively. In the eight!) grade ninety boys averaged only 52.34 per cent, while 102 girls averaged 59.01. Not one had all the words spelled bor- ■ rectly. Of the citizens taking the J test ninety were men and eighty were women. The men averaged 78.44 per cent and the women 70.06 per cent. The most misspelled won! in. the list was "miscellaneous.” The complete list, with the number Of times each was misspelled, follows: Miscellaneous, 364; calendar, 324, parallel, 273; privilege, 270; superintendent, 248; principle, 24 2; niece, 223; lose, 201; separate, 196; disappoint, 177; disease, 164; principal, 142; necessary, 137; business, 130; relieve, 125; receive, 109; truly, 85;‘government, 84; grammar, 79; believe, 73. One woman, who made a perfect score, said she had been a servant for sixty-three years and had had only eight weeks’ schooling. A prom* inent county official, who had been in business here all his life, missed every word in the list. Another man

only got one word right. One woman missed all but three. • [ can't nr terstand it,” said Mr. Haworth.