the Evanston schools has reported that out of one
hundred first-reader words which he gave to his grammar classes as
a spelling test, some were misspelled by all but sixteen per cent{.} of
the pupils. And yet these same pupils were studying busily away on
_categories, concatenation,_ and _amphibious_. The spelling-book makers
feel that they must put hard words into their spellers. Their books are
little more than lists of words, and any one can make lists of common, easy
words. A spelling-book filled with common easy words would not seem to be
worth the price paid for it. Pupils and teachers must get their money's
worth, even if they never learn to spell. Of course the teachers are
expected to furnish drills themselves on the common, easy words; but
unfortunately they take their cue from the spelling-book, each day merely
assigning to the class the next page. They haven't time to select, and no
one could consistently expect them to do otherwise than as they do do.

To meet this difficulty, the author of this book has prepared a version
of the story of Robinson Crusoe which contains a large proportion of
the common words which offer difficulty in spelling. Unluckily it
is not easy to produce classic English when one is writing under the
necessity of using a vocabulary previously selected. However, if we
concentrate our attention on the word-forms, we are not likely to be
much injured by the ungraceful sentence-forms. This story is not long,
but it should be dictated to every school class, beginning in the
fourth grade, until _every_ pupil can spell _every_ word correctly.
A high percentage is not enough, as in the case of some other studies.
Any pupil who misses a single word in any exercise should be marked zero.

But even if one can spell correctly every word in this story, he may still
not be a good speller, for there are thousands of other words to be
spelled, many of which are not and never will be found in any
spelling-book. The chief object of a course of study in spelling is to
acquire two habits, the habit of observing articulate sounds, and the habit
of observing word-forms in reading.

1. Train the Ear. Until the habit of observing articulate sounds
carefully has been acquired, the niceties of pronunciation are beyond
the student's reach, and equally the niceties of spelling are beyond his
reach, too. In ordinary speaking, many vowels and even some consonants
are slurred and obscured. If the e