James Pitman
British politician
Died when: 84 years 18 days (1008 months)Star Sign: Leo
Sir Isaac James Pitman (known as James), KBE (14 August 1901 – 1 September 1985) was a distinguished publisher, senior civil servant, prominent educationalist, and leading politician, whose lifetime pursuit was the study of etymology, orthography, and pedagogy.
His crowning achievement in life was an attempt to better the literacy of children in the English speaking world through using an interim teaching orthography, known as the initial teaching alphabet or i.t.a.
He was honoured with a knighthood in 1961 for his life accomplishments.James Pitman followed in the footsteps of his famous grand-father, Isaac Pitman, by exploring and expanding the pedagogical theories on teaching children to read the English language.
Pitman obsessively studied English etymology, alphabets and orthography.He then presented the argument that the over-arching cause of reading difficulty in children was the phonetic irregularity of the English language.
He compiled and published his analysis in his major work, Alphabets and Reading (1965).Pitman postulated that if children were taught using an interim orthography consisting of an alphabet and spelling system which were phonetically regular, then they would learn to read quickly and easily and so purge the problem of poor literacy which plagued the English speaking world.
He relentlessly exploited his position as a leading politician, and prominent educationalist along with the resources and connections from his successful global printing and publishing business to develop and launch the initial teaching alphabet (i.t.a.), which was initially a spectacular success with its use expanding to 4,000 schools in the UK and 17,000 schools worldwide.
