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

dred inability, that Of recollecting dates and
figures. certainly does 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 ex-
traordiuary effort to eradicate especially
among women.
of this kind, though it is, Of course. the one
most observed, and owing to the curious caste
feeling mentioned above-a feeling entirely
absent hundred years ago-it is the one most
resented. The ignorance OF many cultivated
men OF arithmetic is frequently astounding.
We feel sure, from our own experience. tnat
hundreds Of what are called well-educated
men, and thousands Of accomplished women,
could not do rule-of-three sum if their for
tunes depended uoon 1t; while number, pre-
sumably less but still very large: cannot do
any calculation on paper at all. We venture
to say the majority Of middle and upper class
women are worried by the simplest question
about interest, and to very large proportion
the simple adding up Of household accounts
is wearisome labor very inaccuratey per-
formed, while il the calculation is in foreign
money they are hopelessly bewildered. They
do not understand compound addition. while
as to compound division, or any problem OF
any sort involving fractions, they frankly de-
cline to make the attempt. We have personal
ly known lady, mistress not only Of four Ian
cuages, but Of their iteiatutes, give uf the
effort to discover, ,whaA the fourth or a. seventh
was as something wholly beyond her capacity,
and ten minutes after discuss 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 grammar school, and an almost unrlval-
led 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 IN 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 beensome odd loa.h-
ing for figures in him, as we'll as want of inter-
est, resembling the loathing SOC some lads 9 have az
House Of Peer, 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 all 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. It is just the Same
with geography, OF which educated and com.
petent men often do not know the simplest
facts, though they have all learned them in q
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
meanwhile are just as ignorant as medical
students arc ofspelling. We should just like
to make the English members in the House III
OF Ireland, and soc how many OF the maps bore
fair resemblance to the truth. Yet they were
taught about Ireland as we'll as England, and
at the same time. No doubt the English me-
thod of teaching geography, even in the very
best schools is ludicrously bad, very few mas
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 if they can draw its outline,
though they do moi know whether 1t ls as big
as Yorkshire or as Europe. But still, most
educated mon once knew much more or geo.
graphy as lads than they do as men; the rea-
son beng want Of interest in the subject. 10
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, bEt the
memory, unstimulated by any interest, refuses
to retain its load.
The real failure is not in these things, but in
the entire absence Of any attempt to secure
communication OF knowledge, but the develop
ment of the powers Of the mind. Half an
hours chat by shrewd, good-tempered arith-
metician with o lad on the rule OF three, It's
principle and It's management, VIII give tne
student more perfect control of that invalua-
BILE machine than years Of ''sums" done by
cram rules without the smallest notion why
those rules yield accurate results.
We know child OF eight Ia girl) whose ac-
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 an interest in the shapes OF the different
countries on thu map, arising originally from
some grotesque remark about the likeness OF
Britain to an Old lady dandlng ireland on her
lap. The teachers even in commercial schools
are not such bad machines as they are des-
cr7bed; 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.