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 alleviate 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.

[7] The innovations made by his grandfather were monetized into the successful family business, Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons Ltd. Due to this fact, James Pitman was born into a wealthy family and received a privileged upbringing, being educated at the elite Summer Fields School,[8] Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford where he graduated with a Master of Arts (MA) in Modern History.

Pitman also served on the board of directors of several large publicly limited companies including Boots the Chemists, Glaxo, Bovril and Equity & Law Life Assurance Society[24] Pitman became a prominent British educationalist, promoting education from kindergarten children to adult training.

in the 1945 Labour party landslide win, after which he was involved in the opposition to the nationalisation programme of Clement Attlee's government.

[49] Pitman passionately argued in Parliament to make it easier for kindergarten-aged children to learn to read and write through orthographical and spelling reforms to the English Language.

Pitman worked with the similarly minded Labour MP, Mont Follick, to table a series of private members' bills to enable the reforms.

The parliamentary support for these measures forced the government to allow a trial which led to the launch of the Initial Teaching Alphabet.

[52][53] In 1961, Pitman was honoured by being appointed as an Ordinary Knights Commander of the Civil Division of the said Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE)[54] Pitman's main life achievement was in endeavouring to make reading & writing easier for kindergarten children and so improving literacy levels in the general population.

Isaac's major work on spelling reform was the development of the alternative English orthography known as Phonotypy which he published in 1844.

[56] In May 1936, Pitman was elected to the committee of the Simplified Spelling Society after a fortuitous meeting on board a steam-ship in the mid Atlantic between Pitman and committee member, Professor Lloyd James, Professor of Phonetics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University.

Pitman was part of a parliamentary group led by the Labour MP Dr, Mont Follick, who argued that orthographic reform to the English language was needed to improve levels of literacy and to make it easier for young children to learn to read and write.

They succeeded in extracting compromises from the education minister, Florence Horsbrugh, to allow a trial of an orthographic means of teaching children to read.

[60] Pitman had to exploit the resources of his printing & publishing businesses and his extensive connections with the educational establishment to deploy his system.

spread unchecked through the UK and onwards to the English speaking world including the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.