[Footnote 30:  Macmillan.]

If we agree not to begin until six years old, the next question is the method.  The alphabetic, whereby children were taught the letter names and then memorised the spelling of each single word, has no supporters.  But controversy still goes on as to whether children shall begin with word wholes or with the phonic sounds.  It is not a matter of vital importance, for the children who begin with words come to phonics later, and so far as English is concerned, the children who begin with phonics cannot go far without meeting irregularities, unless indeed they are limited to books like those of Miss Dale.

In other languages which are phonic the difficulties are minimised.  Children in the ordinary Elementary Schools in Italy, though taught in large classes, can write long sentences to dictation in four or five months.[31] But in Italian each letter has its definite sound and every letter is sounded.  It is true that these children appear to spend most of their time in formal work.

[Footnote 31:  A class of children who began in the middle of October wrote correctly to dictation on March 28, “Patria e lavoro siamo, miei cari bambini, parole sante per voi.  Amate la nostra cara e bella Italia, crescete onesti e laboriosi e sarete degni di lei.”]

The Froebelian who believes in learning by action will, of course, expect the children to make or write from the beginning as a method of learning, whether she begins with words or with sounds.  But in English, unless simplified spelling is introduced, the time must soon come when reproduction must lag behind recognition.  One child said with pathos one day, “May we spell as we like to-day, for I’ve got such a lot to say?”

The phonic method dates back to about 1530.  The variety used in the Pestalozzi-Froebel House is said to have originated with Jacotot (1780-1840).  It is called the “Observing-Speaking-Writing and Reading Method.”  Froebel’s own adaptation was simpler; it was his principle to begin with a desire on the part of the child, and he gives his method in story form, “How Lina learned to write and read.”  Lina is six, she has left the Kindergarten and is presently to attend the Primary School.  She notices with what pleasure her father, perhaps a somewhat exceptional parent, receives and answers letters.  She desires to write and her mother makes her say her own name carefully, noticing first the “open” or vowel sounds and then by noting the position of her tongue she finds the closed sounds.  As she hears the sound she is shown how to make it.  Her father leaves home at the right moment, Lina writes to him, receives and is able to read his answer, printed like her own in Roman capitals.  He sends her a picture book and she is helped to see how the letters resemble those she has learned and the reading is accomplished.