Rewriting the Rules

A simpler spelling system could improve the performance of students and schools.

Poverty and illiteracy are closely linked, and there is something we can do about it. It does not involve increased spending for our schools; in fact, in a short period of time it will reduce the cost of operating our schools. In the digital age we can adopt a simple spelling system for the English language that will enable most of our children and grandchildren to learn to read in the first grade, and give them the foundation for developing to their full potential. Children in Italy, Spain and elsewhere learn to read in the first grade in school, not because they are smarter than our children, but because their spelling systems are so simple that spelling is not a subject taught in their schools. The endless hours spent on spelling drills in our schools are put to much better use.

At the same time as the public is being educated to the fact that the benefits of adopting a simple spelling system far outweigh the cost, and that no one will have to learn how to read all over again, a commission should be established to augment the change. A model for the commission exists in the commission that oversaw the conversion of the English monetary system to a decimal system. Few, if any, British people want to go back to shillings and florins. In less than a generation our children and grandchildren will be grateful to us if we adopt a simple spelling system as soon as possible.

With a simple spelling system, almost all of our children will leave school prepared to obtain and keep a job. Our prison population will fall dramatically. One study found that of those who entered prison illiterate and learned to read while in prison, only 27 percent of them were back in prison three years later, while of those who left prison illiterate, 70 percent were back in prison three years later. The savings to taxpayers in operating our judicial/prison/parole systems will be very substantial. Living with self-supporting neighbors will increase the quality of life for all.

The sooner we complete this task, the sooner our country will become competitive in the world's economy.

Case Western Reserve University has facilities that can study the best path to bring about change and what simple spelling system to adopt. It is possible to develop a system within the Roman alphabet that does not call for the use of diacritics or other features that make it look foreign to users of our traditional orthography (TO) and simple to decode. Samspel, a simple spelling system that I have developed, will be a good place to start. The sounds of speech are recorded in the order in which they are enunciated, with few exceptions, and no letter is used for a sound that it is not used for in TO. It is not necessary to remember some 300 spelling rules and exceptions to those rules.

The Weatherhead School of Management can make studies of America's expenditures for operating our judicial/prison/parole systems and disseminate the findings.

The Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences can provide information on the direct and indirect costs of poverty.

The mission of the Case Western Reserve educator preparation unit is to prepare proactive scholar-practitioners who demonstrate skill in instructional planning, delivery and assessment, and dispositions consistent with the principles of commitment, collaboration and creativity. Students going into teaching can study the best way to teach the new system and plan lessons, and determine how to best teach new teachers to teach the new system. Their creativity would blossom.

The problem of maintaining classroom discipline would be reduced to a point where we would not have half of those entering the profession drop out within five years. What other profession has as high a drop out rate? Training replacement teachers is costly and can be avoided to a large extent by giving them the best tools possible, which includes a simple spelling system.

People without children and grandchildren will probably continue to read and write as they now do, but parents and grandparents might want to learn the easily decoded system so as to be able to help their children with homework, yet continue to read and write as usual.

Sanford S. Silverman (ADL '48)