The question of why a relatively low percentage of students were progressing to the intermediate track had to be addressed. The data indicated our graduates were having difficulty progressing beyond 20/6. Some instructors attempted to address it by increasing character speed, but that exacerbated the problem. The term Farnsworth Trap was coined, and apprehension formed around the use of enhanced spacing for initial learning of the code.
But our research indicated there was widespread support in the historical documents for the use of enhanced spacing going back to Thomas Edison in 19Ø2:
“It is not the speed at which a letter is sounded that perplexes the learner, but the rapid succession in which they follow each other.”
Prominent researchers such as Otto Lipmann in 1928 and Dr. Rebekka Aleida Biegel in 1932 used enhanced character spacing and were able to achieve student proficiency at 20 and 25 WPM respectively. Biegel started at 25/8.4 and incrementally increased effective speed to 25/9.6, 25/11.4, 25/14, 25/18, and 25/25.
We concluded there was nothing inherently wrong with a higher character speed and enhanced spacing as long as students were encouraged to increase effective speed from the start. Our existing curriculum was focused exclusively on learning the characters and not on increasing effective speed.
We learned from those mistakes. We compiled our club’s most effective practices for increasing CW proficiency and incorporated them in every Beginners Carousel lesson.
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