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Complexities of Efficiency Reform: The Case of Simplified Spelling, 1876–1921
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 July 2017
Abstract
Progressive Era advocates of spelling reform argued that adopting “simplified” word forms would increase the efficiency of American schools. National education leaders and administrators sustained the movement as they discussed simplified spelling extensively in meetings of the National Education Association and state teachers’ associations as well as in education journals. While emphasizing saving money and time, their arguments for spelling reform also infused social justice into social efficiency, and efficiency into child-centered pedagogy. Although leaders saw schoolteachers as the torchbearers for simplified spelling, teachers’ subtle resistance undermined the movement. Teachers and the few administrators who opposed spelling reform occasionally voiced objections to efficiency itself, but their concerns about public scrutiny most influenced their opposition and thus the movement's ultimate demise. This examination of the public education sector's relationship to the simplified spelling movement illustrates the complexity of education leaders’ relationship with efficiency as well as their vulnerability to teacher resistance and public censure.
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References
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68 Vaile, “Spelling Reform,” 16; Vaile, “Spelling Reform–II,” 167.
69 Homer Seerley, David Felmley, and Charles McKenny to Presidents and Faculties of the State Normal Schools, United States of America, Dec. 20, 1909, folder 1, box 5, David Felmley Presidential Papers, Dr. Jo Ann Rayfield Archives at Illinois State University, Milner Library, Normal, IL (hereafter cited as Felmley Papers);
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71 Seerley, “Simplified Spelling with Reference to the Masses,” 651–52.
72 Vaile, “Spelling Reform–II,” 167.
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74 “Discussion—Subject: Simplified Spelling,” NEA Proceedings (1901), 216.
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79 Seerley, “Simplified Spelling with Reference,” 651.
80 “Discussion—Subject: Simplified Spelling,” 116; “Dr. Maxwell's Address,” 5; and Stein, “The Jackson Bill,” 56.
81 North, “Speling Reform in Jurnalism,” 273–74.
82 Tyack, The One Best System, 255–68; Tyack and Hansot, Managers of Virtue, 180–201; Urban, Why Teachers Organized; Apple, “Teaching and ‘Women's Work’”; Hoffman, Woman's “True” Profession, 228–46; Rousmaniere, City Teachers; and Cuban, How Teachers Taught. See also MacDonald, Victoria-Maria, “The Paradox of Bureaucratization: New Views on Progressive Era Teachers and the Development of a Woman's Profession,” History of Education Quarterly 39, no. 4 (Winter 1999), 427–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
83 Lears, No Place of Grace, xv, 4; and Zimmerman, “Simplified Spelling.”
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85 Callahan, Education and the Cult of Efficiency, viii; Berman, “Business Efficiency,” 315. See also Katz, Class, Bureaucracy and Schools; and Steffes, School, Society and State. Gamson further examines educators’ vulnerability to public opinion; see Gamson, “The Infusion of Corporate Values.”
86 Goldstein's notion of “moral panic” in her recent history of the teaching profession in the United States is arguably a teacher-focused version of the vulnerability thesis. Goldstein asserts that American teachers have endured a series of “bad-teacher” scares in which the media blame schoolteachers for larger problems in American society. These attacks reflect harsh censure of teachers and invoke fear of further scrutiny. See Goldstein, Dana, The Teacher Wars: A History of America's Most Embattled Profession (New York: Doubleday, 2014)Google Scholar.
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101 “Discussion—Subject: Simplified Spelling,” 210; and O. C. Blackmer to Homer H. Seerley, July 18, 1907, Correspondence, Seerley Papers.
102 NEA Proceedings (1911), 653–56.
103 Coffman, L. D., “Reformed Spelling in the State,” Illinois Teacher 3, no. 1 (Sept. 1, 1914), 3–4 Google Scholar. Of course, the majority of classroom teachers were women; Zimmerman notes, “Women were particularly vocal in their opposition to the movement, as simplifiers often noted.” Zimmerman, “Simplified Spelling,” 391.
104 Transactions of the Michigan State Teachers’ Association … 1878, 23.
105 “Two Important Steps in Spelling Reform,” The Intelligence 20, no. 2 (Jan. 15, 1900), 46 Google Scholar; and Harris's comments, “revised and extended” in “Discussion—Subject: Simplified Spelling,” 224.
106 Seerley, Homer H., “The Attitude of the Leaders of Public Education Toward Simplified Spelling,” Educational Review 36 (Sept. 1908), 183 Google Scholar.
107 Greenwood, J. M., “Spelling Yelpers,” INM 25, no. 9 (April 1902), 433 Google Scholar.
108 “Discussion—Subject: Simplified Spelling,” 215–16; “Notes and Comments,” INM 28, no. 11–12 (June–July 1905), 549 Google ScholarPubMed; and Lears, No Place of Grace, 7.
109 American School Board Journal 33, no. 3 (Sept. 1906), 22 Google Scholar.
110 American School Board Journal 33, no. 4 (Oct. 1906)Google Scholar, cover.
111 American School Board Journal 42, no. 3 (March 1911), 11 Google Scholar.
112 Callahan, Education and the Cult of Efficiency.
113 Transactions of the Michigan State Teachers’ Association, 23.
114 Harris, “Letter of Transmittal,” in March, The Spelling Reform, 10.
115 Harris's comments, “revised and extended” in “Discussion—Subject: Simplified Spelling,” 221–24.
116 “National Meeting of Superintendents,” The Intelligence 21, no. 5 (March 1, 1901), 170 Google Scholar; Vaile, “Report of the Committee on Simplified Spelling,” 31; and “Report on the Committee on the Simplification of Spelling,” NEA Proceedings (1905), 157.
117 Charles C. P. Scott to David Felmley, Sept. 27, 1909, folder 1, box 5, Felmley Papers. While this archival evidence suggests that Young supported simplified spelling at least to some extent, Zimmerman and historian of Illinois State Normal University Marshall state that Young must have opposed it because she teased David Felmley about using simplified words. See Zimmerman, “Simplified Spelling,” 391; and Marshall, Helen E., “Simplified Spelling—and David Felmley,” Alumni Quarterly of the Illinois State Normal University 43 (May 1954), 8–9 Google Scholar.
118 Homer H. Seerley to David Felmley, April 22, 1910, Correspondence, Seerley Papers.
119 William Aldrich to Homer H. Seerley, Feb. 5, 1908, Correspondence, Seerley Papers.
120 Seerley, Homer H., “The Simplification of the Spelling of the English Language,” INM 22, no. 9 (April 1906), 442, 443Google Scholar.
121 Seerley, “The Attitude of the Leaders,” 180, 182–83, 184.
122 Homer H. Seerley to Charles C. P. Scott, Jan. 13, 1912, Correspondence, Seerley Papers.
123 Homer H. Seerley to E. O. Vaile, April 22, 1910, Correspondence, Seerley Papers.
124 Homer H. Seerley to Charles C. P. Scott, Jan. 23, 1911, Correspondence, Seerley Papers. On criticism of the Iowa State Teachers College and Seerley's response, see various letters, Jan.–Feb. 1911, Correspondence, Seerley Papers; and Lang, William C., A Century of Leadership and Service: A Centennial History of the University of Northern Iowa, vol. 1, 1876–1909 (Cedar Falls: University of Northern Iowa, 1990), 270–314 Google Scholar.
125 Homer H. Seerley to J. W. Jarnagin, April 27, 1920, Correspondence, Seerley Papers.
126 Wesley, “The Simplified Spelling Movement,” 228; and Mencken, The American Language, 403.
127 Marshall, Carl C., “Studies in English Expression,” INM 30, no. 4 (Nov. 1906), 191 Google Scholar.
128 Tyack, The One Best System, 182–98; and Reese, America's Public Schools, 118–79.