Simplified Spelling

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 16, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 19.

Simplified Spelling

Simplified spelling is coming to stay. Superintendent William H. Maxwell of the New York public schools recently declared that while he dislikes the new forms like “thru” for “through,” and “past” for “passed,” he still believes that “when generally used, it will be found to be the cause of very great and social uplift.” He sees its great advantages in teaching so many foreigners.

Dr. W. T. Harris, of international fame in the educational world, tells us that the great difficulty is in learning to read with our unscientifically formed words.

He says: “I am quite confident, however, that at least one year might be saved by the use of purely phonetic spelling. Let us suppose that the child has learned to spell phonetically ‘puff’ and ‘muff.’ He receives with consternation the intelligence that ‘rough’ and ‘enough’ are not spelled ruff and enuff, and when he learns that ‘dough’ is not duff, but bread in the making, and that ‘cough’ is not cuff et co. but the malady that so often affects nose and throat, he naturally loses all faith in association and analogy.”