Rensselaer Union, Volume 12, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 September 1879 — Orthography. [ARTICLE]

Orthography.

There is cowvidtfuhle difference of opinion among educators of the present age, as to what is the proper limit of study ami proficiency in the more popular branches of education. • S;nic persons maintain t hat this is tile abused branch, others that something' else is (oo much neglected. It in difficult, in such a diversity of opinion*, to say which branch is abused, since the world knows that whatever a certain man. is remarkably proficient in lie is apt to make a hobby of, and pHxc it too highly. Hut, throw ing aside nil prejudices and predictions, we can, we belieVe, safely nflirm that penmanship and orthography claim a more thorough attention in ttie schools of to-day. If Hie' acquisi lion of knowledge tends.toward the elevation of mankind, eich of the above named branches, and orthography in particular, ought to be early attended to, as p'rofiehmey in other departments is known almost entirely through these. Comparing the common school bramohrs, we must decide that incorrect spelling is more to be deprecated than any other inefficiency pertainirg to school instruction. If poor penmanship offends the eye, what of incorrect spelling, which offends .the e\e, the ear, and the ideality of beauty, gathered from the rytliin and flow of sound? Incorrectspellhig may not only change the mean ii‘g of a word, but it destroys the Jiey by which its etymology is ns ctMlnii.ed. Again, it not only argues negligence, l)ut is a confession on its very face, that the speaker or writer, who employs it, is ignorant*)! the derivation of the word. Not that everyone who spells a word correct!y understands' the i;ont from w hich it was derived, but. he who spells it incorrectly most certainly does not, or lie would never have so spelled it. It matters not whsvt poetical strain or eloquent thought may come forth, if clothed in words wrongly spelled the music dies on the listening ear, and the ryihm of song is iost amid the incongruity of the thought aud diess. besides, incorrect spelling argues an unpardonable negligence, and argues an ignorance, to what extent is Incapable of being judged, yet certain l»y evidence manifest, su.d implied by analogies drawn.

J. L. MAKEEVER.