cation, proposed to the Boston School Masters the adoption of a "new method"of reading that began with the memorization of whole words rather than just learning the letter sounds and blending them into words. His "new method" was basedon the work of Thomas A. Gallaudet, who had developed a way to teach deaf children to read. Since deaf children had no ability to "sound out" letters, syllables,or words, the constant repetition of "sight" words from a controlled vocabulary seemed to be the most efficient way to teach them to read.Adapting the work of Gallaudet, Horace Mann and his wife Mary developed a reading program that applied the same principles to students who had no hearingimpairment. His method was tried for about six years in the Boston schools, and then soundly rejected by the Boston School Masters in 1844. Samuel StillwellGreene, then principal of the Phillips Grammar School in Boston, expressed the views of the Boston School Masters, and the following excerpt from his essay isas relevant today as it was in 1844:"Education is a great concern; it has often been tampered with by vain theorists; it has suffered much from the stupid folly and the delusive wisdom of itstreacherous friends; and we hardly know which have injured it most. Our conviction is, that it has much more to hope from the collected wisdom and commonprudence of the community, than from the suggestions of the individual. Locke injured it by his theories, and so did Rousseau, and so did Milton. All their planswere too splendid to be true. It is to be advanced by conceptions, neither soaring above the clouds, nor groveling on the earth, -- but by those plain, gradual,productive, common-sense improvements, which use may encourage and experience suggest. We are in favor of advancement, provided it be towards usefulness.. . . We love the secretary, but we hate his theories. They stand in the way of substantial education. It is impossible for a sound mind not to hate th...
