Some people have the faculty of unconsciously formulating principles
from their everyday observations, but it is a slow process,
and many never acquire it unless it is taught them.
The spelling problem is not to learn how to spell nine tenths of
our words correctly. Nearly all of us can and do accomplish that.
The good speller must spell nine hundred and ninety-nine one
thousandths of his word correctly, which is quite another matter.
Some of us go even one figure higher.
Our first task is clearly to commit the common irregular words to memory.
How may we do that most easily? It is a huge task at best, but every
pound of life energy which we can save in doing it is so much gained for
higher efforts. We should strive to economize effort in this just as
the manufacturer tries to economize in the cost of making his goods.
In this particular matter, it seems to the present writer that makers
of modern spelling-books have committed a great blunder in mixing
indiscriminately regular words with irregular, and common words with
uncommon. Clearly we should memorize first the words we use most often,
and then take up those which we use less frequently.
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