Bessie Stillman was an influential educator best known for her work in developing structured, multi-sensory methods for teaching students with reading disabilities, particularly through her collaboration on the Orton-Gillingham approach.

Student responses to Bessie Stillman’s approach to field trips:

• “You can see and hear better in small groups.” “

• “You have more chance to ask questions.”

• “It’s easier for the teacher.”

• “You like to do things for yourself.”

• “It makes you feel more grown up.”

Take a look at her pamphlet on field trips.

And her book encouraging active thinking and student engagement.

Key Contributions

• Stillman worked closely with Anna Gillingham in the early 20th century to create a remedial reading program for students with dyslexia, based on Samuel Orton's research.

• Their work resulted in "The Alphabetic Method," later formalized as the Orton-Gillingham method, emphasizing phonological, multisensory, sequential, and individualized instruction for struggling readers.

• Stillman's expertise was in language instruction—she helped design systematic lessons that linked auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learning to reinforce reading, spelling, and penmanship.

• The manual Stillman co-authored ("The Gillingham Manual") remains the foundation of the Orton-Gillingham approach and has had a lasting impact on special education and literacy interventions.

Educational Philosophy and Impact

• Stillman's instructional design focused on teaching rules of language, spelling, and phonics with logic and clarity before rote memorization, which helped students understand complex word structures.

• Techniques introduced by Stillman, such as the Simultaneous Oral Spelling (S.O.S.) method, are widely used in classrooms for multisensory integration of reading skills.

• Her work contributed substantially to early special education practices, offering hope and tools to children with reading challenges at a time when such disabilities were poorly understood.

• Stillman also published essays and books on educational strategies and study skills, influencing the pedagogy beyond special education.

Career Background

• She taught at several institutions, such as the Ethical Culture School in New York, where she began her collaboration with Gillingham.

• Stillman worked and studied in multiple educational settings, helping implement and refine the Orton-Gillingham method in schools and classrooms.

Bessie Stillman's legacy lies in her pivotal role in special education and the development of structured literacy interventions that are still recognized and widely implemented today.

Bessie Stillman was the lifelong colleague and companion of Anna Gillingham. Their collaboration began at the Ethical Culture School in New York, where Bessie Stillman authored an article titled "School Excursions," detailing methods to enhance school field trips. Later, Stillman authored "Training Children to Study; Practical Suggestions," with contributions from Gillingham, particularly in the field of math.

Their collaboration took a significant turn in 1929 when they met Samuel Orton, who was pioneering teaching methods for bright students with reading and writing difficulties. While Gillingham provided expertise in child psychology, Stillman, as a classroom teacher, experimented with and refined procedures for their remediation manual. This manual was later released as "The Gillingham Manual: Remedial Training for Children with Specific Disability in Reading, Spelling, and Penmanship" in 1936.

In 1935, Stillman and Gillingham met Beth Slingerland, then a teacher at Punahou School in Hawaii. Initially, they spent summers together at Glacier National Park, but from 1936-1938, Stillman and Gillingham moved to Hawaii to collaborate with Beth Slingerland. In 1960, Beth Slingerland unveiled the Slingerland Approach, a classroom adaptation of the Orton-Gillingham Method.

Despite her significant contributions, Bessie Stillman's role is often overlooked in favor of her colleagues. However, without her expertise as a teacher, neither the Orton-Gillingham Method nor the Slingerland Approach would exist today.