The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-05-22

|
| figures, certainly docs exist. But an inability
to spell, arising from certain failure OF inter
| est in words, is q distinct characteristic Of
| English minds, and one which it requires cx-
traordinary effort to eradicae---more especially
among women
| Spelling, however, is not the only deficiency
| OF this kind, though iasis, of course. tho ono
most observed, and owing to the curious caste
| feeling mentioned nb0vc-a feeling entirely
absent hundred years ago--t is tho one most
! resented. The ignorance OF many cultivated
| mcn OF arithmetic is frequently astounding.
| We feel sure, from our own experience, that
| hundreds OF what are called well-educated
men, and thousands Of accomplished women,
could not do rule-of-thrco sum if their for-
| tunes depended uoon 1t; while a number pre-
sumably less but still very large: cannot do
any calculation on paper at ali. We venture
women are worried by the simplest question
| about interest," and to a very large proportion
the simple adding up of household accounts
| formed, while if the calculation IS in foreign
| money they are hopelcssly bewldered They
40 not understand compound addition. while
any sort involving fractions. they frankly de-
cline TO make the attempt We have PERSONAL
~ Known a lady, MISTRESS not only of four Ian
guages, but of their litcraturcs, give up the
effort to discover what the fourth of q seventh
was as something wholly beyond her capacity,
and ten minutes after discuss a foreign budget
| with keen intelligence, and that is not an
extreme case. The most extreme we ever
knew was that of an Oxford NJ. A., head master
| Of a grammar school, and an almost uurival-
lea master Of Greek lyrical poetry. who was
honestly unable, and confessed himself un-
able, to do the simplest sum in simple addition,
who, to get al account right, would put the
actual coins on the table, and always called
boy to verify the weekly Statistics Of the
| school, There must have been some odd loa!h-
ing for figures in him, as we'll as want of inter-
est, resembling the loathng some lads have
for Euclid; but we should like to try the
House of Peers with stiff bit OF notation. Not
one in six would put down the figures right,
and Of their wives, not one in sixty; yet they
and al! those we have mentioned have. at
some time or other, learned these things, and
are Ignorant OF them only because their inter
est has never been excited. 1t is just the same
with geography of which educated and com.
petent men often do not know the simplest
| way as one usually learns things Of no interest
that is, without learning them. They have
to learn them again when they want them and
are Just as ignorant as medical
| to make the English members in the House Of
Commons draw each for himselfa skele on map
Of ireland. and see how mauy of the maps bore
fair resemblance to the truth. Yet they we're
| taught about Ireland as we'll England, and
| at the same time. No doubt the English me-
thod Of teaching geo ,raphy, even in the very
ters ever thinking that distances and areas
ought to enter into their teaching, and leaving
pupils under happy belief that they know all
about Arabia il they, can draw it's outline,
1
| as Yorkshire or as Europe. But still most
| educated men once knew much more Of geo.
graphy as lads than they do as men; the rea-
| son beng want Of interest in the subject. To
test them on it would not be fair TO the schools,
wretchedly bad as their system is, any more
| than it would be to test most girls schools by
their old pupils knowledge Of figures. They
have been taught them fairly enough, but the
memory, unstlmulated by any interest, refuses
| to retain it's load.
| The real falure is not in these things, but in
the entire ABSENCE OF any attempt to secure
! the main end of teaching, which is not the
communication of knowledge, but the develop
ment Of the powers of the mind. Half an
hours chat by a. shrewd, good-tempered srith-
| met1cian with 8 lad ON fine rule of three, it's
Principle and its manageutenG, SMin give the
at1deno more perfect control oA sant - vf1ua-
BILE machine than years of '.sums'' done by
| cram rules without the smallest notion why
| those rules yield accurate results. %"'
| We know q child Of eight "a girl) whose &C.
| quaintance with geography is far greater
than that of most men, whose study Of the sub
| ject was induced by the accidental awaken
ing of al interest in the shapes or the different
countries on thu map, arising originally from
| some grotesque remark about the likeness of
Britain to an old lady dandling Ireland on her
lap. The teachers even in commercial schools
| are not such bad machines as they are des-
crbed; but then they usuully are machines,
| and we need Intelligent teachers instead.
| Mere practice will not even enable boys to
spell, and it is practice only which is req uired
Of them.