Page:Handbook of simplified spelling.djvu/34

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26
ENGLISH SPELLING, AND THE

thousands of teachers, and hundreds of thousands of students, wer led iether to use simplified spellings in their official publications and correspondence, or to permit students to use them in written work. Nearly 40 per cent of these institutions, including many State universities, formally approved the movement, in most cases by faculty resolution, and adopted in all cases more than 200 of the simpler spellings, and in some cases many more.

Returns from a questionary addrest in 1916 to all the American universities and colleges (exclusiv of those for Negroes and Indians) listed in the Educational Directory issued by the United States Buro of Education, showd that 57 per cent of these institutions (72 per cent of those heard from) recognized and accepted the simplified spellings of the Board; and that nearly 25 per cent had agreed to use simpler spellings in their official publications and correspondence. Only 18 per cent placed themselvs on record as opposed to the movement. The institutions comprizing the remaining 25 per cent iether gave noncommittal ansers or faild to respond to repeated inquiries.

National Education Association
The most noteworthy result of the Board's activities among the members of the teaching profession was the action taken by the National Education Association in adopting (July 7, 1916) the spelling -t for -ed in past tenses of English verbs ending in -ed pronounst t, and in consistently using it in its official publications and correspondence. The Association, by its acceptance of this rule—which simplifies the spelling of more than 900 words in addition to the Twelv Words adopted in 1898—and by its preference for the simpler of alter-