Teaching Language arTs in The WaLdorf schooL

Grammar and Spelling
315
by acting in a way that will help foster their feeling for authority—for
instance, by teaching spelling in the way I have just described.
[Practical Advice to Teachers, pp. 71-74.]
2. Understanding Spelling Difficulties
This brings me to yet another question which was given to me
yesterday and which can be dealt with in this context. The question
was: Why is it that some children have such tremendous difficulties
in learning how to spell correctly?
Well, anyone who studies Goethe’s spelling or that of other great
men, may gain a peculiar impression, for many a great personality
appears anything but sure of correct spelling. Obviously this must not
tempt us to think that any bad speller in our class may be a budding
genius and that therefore we must not interfere with such a child.
Naturally, this would be an entirely wrong reaction. And so, our first
question must be: wherein lie the causes of such difficulties? We only
need to observe and compare the good and bad spellers to find that
as a rule children who cannot spell, cannot listen properly to the
music inherent in speech. Should there be other reasons as well, you
will find that these usually stem from kindred origins. Children who
have not learned to listen accurately, who have not learned to listen
carefully to the plasticity of the sounds of words, will spell badly.
[Most German words are spelt phonetically. Trans.]
Such a weakness can be traced back to a variety of facts. For
instance, a child may grow up in a family, or in surroundings, where
people speak unclearly. This will prevent the child from learning to
listen carefully and, consequently, he or she will find it very difficult
to spell correctly. Or, owing to an inherent weakness, a child may
not have developed normal word perception. In this case, too, the
first step should be to teach him to listen properly. But there are
occasions—and here I have to ask you to forgive such a blunt statement—where
poor spelling in the child is the teacher’s fault. The
teacher, above all, should endeavor to speak not only distinctly, but
also with a rhythmical and harmonious flow. There is no need for
him to imitate some actors who, in order to avoid swallowing their
word endings, exaggerate each letter of the end syllables. [Rudolf