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Sir Isaac James Pitman (known as James), KBE (14 August 1901 – ) was a distinguished businessman, champion boxer, senior civil servant, prominent educationalist, etymologist, international rugby player, orthographer, pedagogist, publisher, politician, spelling reformer and RAF Squadron Leader, who attempted to better the lives of children in the English speaking world through improving literacy in an unprecedented way. He was honoured with a knighthood in 1961 for his life achievements. James Pitman followed in the footsteps of his famous grand-father, Issac 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 concluded 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: The Initial Teaching Alphabet (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 scourge of poor literacy which plagued the English speaking world. He ruthlessly 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.
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