The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1869-07-07
Little Ignoranees,

arc ultimately required to use. Printers
all know how very little the spelling ever
of oven of the best educated is to he trust
cd and we have reason to believe that if
Fnglish journalists We're weeded by an ex-
animation in which chronological accuracy
was the sine qua non, the profession would
-lose some very competent members. One
occasional contributor TO this journal, a
man whose education has been of singu-
lorIv perfect kind, and who is q true scholar
in his way: never sends in contribution
without half dozen chronological errots
and there are double frsts, who would
rather trust themselves in Greek than
English without pocket dictionary. 1t is
a curious proof of the accuracy of this view,
that the commercial schools. which profess
to teach, and do teach. spelling, do not
turn out spoilers half as accurate as the
public schools, which profess to teach noun
ing Of the kind, and that hunareds OF per,
sons learn TO spell, or rather begin TO spell
habitualIy. only in manhood, that is, wren
the attention at last has been aroused.
Whether the extreme case; that of man
of high culture, who absolutely could not
learn to spell, even happened, we are I'M
certain /; but almost all men who have to
read much manuscript, believe it, and a
kindred inability, that of recoilecting dates
and figures, certainly does exist. But an
inability to spell, arising from a CERTAIN fail
ure of interest, is distinct characteristic
of English minds, and one which it requires
extraordinary effort to eradicate, more
especially among women.
Spelling, however, is not the only de-
fciency of this kind, though it is, OF course,
the one most observed, and owing to the
curious caste feeling mentioned above, a
feeling entirely absurd hundred years
ago. it is the one most resented. The lg-
norance of many cultivated men OF artlme'
tic 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
mot do a rule of three sum if their fortune
denepded upon it; while a number, pre-
sumably less, but still very large, cannot DO
any calculation on paper at all We ven,
ture to say the majority OF middle and
nnner class women are worried by the
SIMPLEST question about interest ana TO
verv LARGE proportion the simple adding up
of Household accounts is wearisome labor
very ;naccurately performed, while If the
calculation is in foreign money they are
hopelessiy bewildered. They do not un-
derstand compound division, or any prob
lem of any sort, involving fractions, they
frankly decline to make the attempt. We
have personally known lady, mistress not
only of four languages, but of their iitera-
lures, give up the effort to discover what
the fourth of seventh was as something
wholly beyond her capacity, and ten min
utes after discuss foreign budget with
keen intelligence and that is not an ex-
IRENE case The most extreme we ever
knew was that of al Oxford M. A., head
master of a gramtner school, and an almost
unrivaled master of Greek lyrical poetry,
who was honestly unable, and confessed
himself unable to do the simplest sum In
simple addition, who, to get on account
right, would pnt the actual coins on the
table, and always called boy to verify the
weekly statistics ofthe school There must
have been some odd loathing for figuras in
him, as we'll as want of interest, resembling
the loathing some lads have for Euclid !;
but we should like to try the House OF
one in six would put down the figures right,
and of their wives not one in sixty yet
they and all those we have mentionei have,
and are ignorant of them only because their
interest has never been excited. 1t is Just
the same with geography, of which educa-
ted and competent 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 last as ignorant as medical students are
of sp cling. We should just like to max"
the English members of the House of Com
mons; draw each for himself a skeleton map
Of Ireland, aud see how many of the maps
bore q fair resemblance of the truth. Yet
they were taught about Ireland as well as
England, and at the same time. No doubt
the English method of teaching geography
even in the best schools, is iudicronsty bad
very few masters ever thinking that dis
tances and areas ought to enter into their
teaching. and leaving pupils under happy
belief that they know all about Arabia il
they can draw its outline, though they dc
not know whether it is as big as Yorkshire
or Europe. But still, most educated mer
onee knew much more of geography as lads
than they do as men, the reason being
want of interest in the subject. To tes
them on it would not be fair to the schools
wretchedly bad as their system is, any NOR
than it would be to test most girls school:
by their old pupils knowledge of figures
They have been taught them fairly enough
but the memory unstimulated by any inter
est, refuses to retain its load. The rea
failure is not in these things, but in thu
entire absence of any attempt to secure thu
main end of teaching, which is not the com
munication of knowledge, but the develop
ment of the powers of the mind. Half al
hours chat by shrewd. good-temperee
arithmetician with q lad on the rule o
three, its principle and its management
will give the student more perfect contro
of that invaluable machine than years o.
"sums" done by cram rules without the
smallest notion why those rules yield &c
curate results. We know child of eight
agirl whose acquaintance with geography
is fnr greater than that of most men, whose
study Of the subject was induced by ac
cidental awakening of an interest in the
shapes of the different countries ofthe map
arising originally from some srotesque re
mark about the liken ess Of England to ar
old lady handling ireland on her lap. The
teachers even in commercial schools are
not such bad machines as they are de
scribed; but then they usually are machines
and We need intelligent teachers instead
Mere practice will not even enable boys tt
spell, and it is practice only which is re
quired OF them
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