Talk:Columbia Spelling Board

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I moved the following justification section from the main article to the talk page where I it probably belongs. Much of this however would fit well in the main article, and I'll try to put it back as well as I can -- though someone more familiar with the topic would do a better job than I Nonenmac 13:27, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Stub creation; justification and need for an article

Simplified Spelling (or simplified spellings) a broadbased philological reform movement, centered in part at Columbia University under the aegis of a body enshrined as the Columbia Spelling Board (CSB) in the Presidential years of Theodore Roosevelt's terms. Teddy, gave the movement much publicity in the middle of his second term by writing a letter to the Public Printer of the United States ordering 300 or so frequently used words be published solely in the new spelling recommended by Circular number 6 of the CSB. It is fair to say that TR was at the apex of his power at the time this letter was sent. This differs from today's article on spelling reform which treats this large controversy of its day with total silence. This document is part of my personal action to give impetus to having better informed philiological experts correct the deficiencies of the history not devolved in the Wikipedia common file spelling reform article as exists today: 31 May 2005.

The President's/CSB efforts were eventually partly successful, but also had generated opposing resolutions in Congress, as well as defiant Supreme Court Justices coming out on the record against the bureaucratic high handedness. The Press feasted for weeks with 'punny headlines' and vyed to coin new sarcastic simplifications, until the influential Harpers Weekly complained in the headline: "THIS IS TU MUCH". The president recanted his order telling the Public Printer of the US that none of his changes should be considered permanent, telling him that if the changes do not meet with public approval, that they should be 'dropt'. This later word, indicative of the resolve by this leonine president to continue using the new spellings himself.

Source: Theodore Rex, Edmund Morris, ISBN 0-8129-6600-7, paperback pp-460-61

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