The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1864-05-07
Mental Arithmetic


Among the classes examined on Friday
morning. at the close of our district school.
was Miss Watson's class in Mental Arith-
metic. Without making any inviduous COM
parisou. it is bat just to say that that class
reflected great credit upon their teacher.
Though many of the examples proposed
were complicated and quite difficult, yet
they were performed with promptness
that indicated that the pupils knew what
they were about. The importance of men
tai arithmetic is sltogether underestimated.
Young pupils are exceedingly anxious to
be able to say that they are "ciphering,"
and hence before half prepared, they com
mence written arithmetic. Nothing can be
more foolish or unwise. It would be an
excellent rule not to allow any child to com
mence written arithmetic until it bad com
pletely mastered Colburn or Stoddard.
With such foundation the individual would
find little difficulty when he came to the
use of the slate. In fact. ciphering would
be nothing but sport, and that old ditty of
the Ounce,
Multiplication is q vexation;
Division is as bad;
Rule Three doth puzzle me,
And Fractions makes Inc mad.
would never be his song.
If an individual can master mental arith-
metic, he will be able 10 do almost any COM
mon kind of business that may come up.
No exercise is so good to strengthen the
mind. In solving the more difficult prob
lens of Colburn or Stoddard the mind must
work, and that, too. vigorously. 1t is sur
prising how young mind may, under the
discipline of a skillful teacher. be made to
work vigorously, and accomplish with the
utmost facility what to MANI older heads
would seem an impossibility.
Happening in school some years since,
class of boys and girls, some ten or twelve
years of age, was called upon to recite in
Colburn's Arithmetic. They were then
hall way through the book-had just finish
ed the multiplication table of numbers above
twelye-a table, by the way, which very
few can go through rapidly. They went
through the process of multiplication, first
of the units into the tens, then the units
into units, adding the tens, and giving the
result without the least hesitation. The
same facility was manifested in solving the
most difficult examples proposed to them
which they had been over before. Indeed,
did my utmost, as the teacher gave leave
to ask any questions we pleased, and though
none OF them had book, they each repeat
ed the example, performed it, giving every
reason as they went along, and concluded
with, Therefore. if such be the conditions,
such must be the result"
Now, what one class Of children of com
mon intelligence, under good instructor,
can accomplish, any other class, under sim
ilor eipou1Aa ta1oas, oan- do aleAz AaetLer
term would have been sufficient for that
class to have more than finished up m entail
arithmetic. Thus trained, two terms-or at
most, three short terms-would be abund
antly sufficient to have mastered written
arithmetic. We are glad to see that be-
ginning has been made in our schools, and
we hope next term that every individual old
enough will be required to make mental
arithmetic one Of their principal studies.
G. G. NJ.