Fact · Dictation
Mason described the common practice of dictation as a teacher who dictates clause by clause and underlines the spelling errors, sometimes in red ink, for the children to correct.
Checked against its source on October 17, 2026
In the source's own words
“The conscientious teacher draws her pencil under these errors, or solemnly underlines them with red ink”
Home Education (Home Education Series, Volume 1), Charlotte M. Mason, Project Gutenberg, eBook 71087, 1886, Chapter XII, A Fertile Cause of Bad Spelling.
Open the original- What it measures
- Mason's description of the common school practice she criticised, written in 1886 about the schools of her time.
- What it does not show
- A description of the practice Mason opposed, in her own words. It is not a survey of how schools dictate today.