Changes

==Speller ==  

==Speller ==  

As a teacher, he had come to dislike American elementary schools. They were poorly staffed with untrained teachers, and poorly equipped with unsatisfactory textbooks that came from England. The most popular American speller was the old ''New England Primer'', which stressed religion; Webster replaced it with a speller that taught patriotism.  In 1782 he began writing a three volume compendium, ''A Grammatical Institute of the English Language''.<ref> See full text at [http://books.google.com/books?id=tX8SAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=inauthor:Noah+inauthor:webster&num=30&as_brr=1]</ref> The work consisted of a speller (published in 1783), a grammar (published in 1784), and a reader (published in 1785). His goal was to provide a uniquely American approach to training children. His most important improvement, he claimed, was to rescue of "our native tongue" from "the clamor of pedantry" that surrounded English grammar and pronunciation. He complained that the English language had been corrupted by the British aristocracy, which set its own standard for proper spelling and pronunciation. Webster rejected the notion that the study of Greek and Latin must precede the study of English grammar. The appropriate standard for the American language, argued Webster, was "the same republican principles as American civil and ecclesiastical constitutions," which meant that the people-at-large must control the language; popular sovereignty in government must be accompanied by popular usage in language. "The truth is general custom is the rule of speaking&mdash;and every deviation from this must be wrong." <ref>Ellis 172.</ref>

As a teacher, he had come to dislike American elementary schools. They were poorly staffed with untrained teachers, and poorly equipped with unsatisfactory textbooks that came from England. The most popular American speller was ''[[The New England Primer]]'', which stressed religion; Webster replaced it with a speller that taught patriotism.  In 1782 he began writing a three volume compendium, ''A Grammatical Institute of the English Language''.<ref> See full text at [http://books.google.com/books?id=tX8SAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=inauthor:Noah+inauthor:webster&num=30&as_brr=1]</ref> The work consisted of a speller (published in 1783), a grammar (published in 1784), and a reader (published in 1785). His goal was to provide a uniquely American approach to training children. His most important improvement, he claimed, was to rescue of "our native tongue" from "the clamor of pedantry" that surrounded English grammar and pronunciation. He complained that the English language had been corrupted by the British aristocracy, which set its own standard for proper spelling and pronunciation. Webster rejected the notion that the study of Greek and Latin must precede the study of English grammar. The appropriate standard for the American language, argued Webster, was "the same republican principles as American civil and ecclesiastical constitutions," which meant that the people-at-large must control the language; popular sovereignty in government must be accompanied by popular usage in language. "The truth is general custom is the rule of speaking&mdash;and every deviation from this must be wrong." <ref>Ellis 172.</ref>

The ''Speller'' was arranged so that it could be easily taught to students, and it progressed by age. From his own experiences as a teacher, Webster thought the ''Speller'' should be simple and gave an orderly presentation of words and the rules of spelling and pronunciation. He believed students learned most readily when he broke a complex problem into its component parts and had each pupil master one part before moving to the next. Ellis argues that Webster anticipated some of the insights currently associated with [[Jean Piaget]]'s theory of cognitive development. Webster said that children pass through distinctive learning phases in which they master increasingly complex or abstract tasks. Therefore, teachers must not try to teach a three-year-old how to read; they could not do it until age five. He organized his speller accordingly, beginning with the alphabet and moving systematically through the different sounds of vowels and consonants, then syllables, then simple words, then more complex words, then sentences. <ref>Ellis 174.</ref>

The ''Speller'' was arranged so that it could be easily taught to students, and it progressed by age. From his own experiences as a teacher, Webster thought the ''Speller'' should be simple and gave an orderly presentation of words and the rules of spelling and pronunciation. He believed students learned most readily when he broke a complex problem into its component parts and had each pupil master one part before moving to the next. Ellis argues that Webster anticipated some of the insights currently associated with [[Jean Piaget]]'s theory of cognitive development. Webster said that children pass through distinctive learning phases in which they master increasingly complex or abstract tasks. Therefore, teachers must not try to teach a three-year-old how to read; they could not do it until age five. He organized his speller accordingly, beginning with the alphabet and moving systematically through the different sounds of vowels and consonants, then syllables, then simple words, then more complex words, then sentences. <ref>Ellis 174.</ref>