Nova Elementary Schoool

[ceebeegee]

I attended an experimental school in Fort Lauderdale (Plantation, really) in the early-mid '70s--I was part of the experimental group (as opposed to the control). We didn't have walls, and we learned a weird approach to language, a phonetic approach. We had a different alphabet made up entirely of phonetic symbols/letters, we would recite our "alphabet" every day. I remember it started off "A--apple, N--nest..." and on, in a different order from the normal alphabet and using some different symbols. One symbol was the ae (that is, it looked like one of those old-fashioned symbols where the a and the e are twined together) and that made a sound like "ay." Another symbol looked like one of those 3s that are flat on top--that sounded like the "zh" sound in the word "television." I was reading a Washington Post chat transcript today about poor spellers, and someone posted this:

Vineland, N.J.: Steve, did you possibly learn to read by a method called "ITA" (stands for initial training alphabet)? It was the reading method du jour during the mid-sixties. The children that went through the ITA reading process turned out to be great readers but poor spellers. Examples of the ways that words were spelled in ITA reading textbooks: The word "pay" was spelled "pae" and write was spelled "wriet."

Meanwhile, three cheers for the person who invented the spell checker!

Steve Hendrix: I don't think we had that in South Georgia in the 70s.


Yes! That was it--I remember we were called the "ITA" group. And I remember those workbooks, and the biiig pencils with which we wrote. Yes, I was a great, and early, reader--I used to read by the light that spilled under the door after I was supposed to be in bed. It's God's mercy that I didn't end up needing glasses. But I'm a good speller too--I was the district and regional forensic spelling champion in high school, and of course, I'm a proofreader now.

It was quite a change after my parents divorced and I went to live in Virginia at the beginning of third grade. The school I attended there, Mount Daniel Elementary, was diametrically different from Nova--it was a brick red school house with normal classrooms and even cloakrooms. I loved Mt. Daniel too, it was just so different.

Comments

[dje2004.livejournal.com]

I don't really have anything to add to this, except to say that the question from the chat that you quoted above came from someone in my old hometown.

Yeah, that's all. I've never heard of ITA. I just had one of those "hey, that's my town" moments.

[tenner.livejournal.com]

iccubis can go on at length about his experiences with ITA. He has mild dyslexia, and he credits ITA with his absolutely horrible spelling and writing ability. He's a very, very eloquent person when he speaks but his writing his horrible thanks to the ITA.

[foulpost.livejournal.com]

Edith Skinner would be proud of you.