The Portland daily press., 1876-03-07

schools.
The condition of our schools,i n common
with the majority of schools known to us
in the country, in regard to arithmetic is
not satisfactory. The fundamental art of
ciphering, that of using numbers, is too
much sacrificed in the vain desire to un-
derstand numbers. Numbers stand as a
perpetual warning to men that faith is
better than sight. Gauss himself can give
no demonstration of the proposition that
every even number may be produced by
the addition of two prime numbers. The
proposition is very simple. and although
tested on innumerable numbers has never
been proved. This does not prevent the
accounts of our banks, and the calcula-
tions of our engineers, from being correct.
And in the judgment of your committee it
is OF vastly more Importance for child to
acquire in youth while habits are easily
formed, the habit of rapid and correct
calculation by means of numbers. than to
attempt prematurely to understand the
reason of his processes. Reading and
writing English, and ciphering, Should
become habits, second natures to the child:
as natural and unconscious as breathing.
The new born babe would die of asphyxia
before it reached the breast, if it were
forced to understand the mechanism of its
intercostal muscles before breathing.
Warren Colburn, whose admirable les
sons in arithmetic are superior to any of
their limitations, is nevertheless to large
extent the cause of this disastrous change
that has come over the teaching of arith-
metic. He called his book First Lessons,
and wrote the opening chapters for young
children. The whole book has thus been
considered as adapted for such children;
whereas its real and inestimable value is
for pupils between the age of II and IA
years. The notion has been, however,
fOstered that all arithmetic must be I'M
derstood before it is practised, and that the
explanations must be written out in the
text book. The result of this double error
is the neglect of the art of computation in
the effort to give premature development
of logic, and the neglect of teaching in
the absurd idea that the text book is to
teach. and that the person hired as teacher
is simply to conduct daily oral examina-
tons, on what the text book has taught.
If the children had the years of Methusa-
leh before them, this process might have
some shadow of excuse. But as
even the long course of instruc-
ton laid down for the public
schools Of New England, has limits,
while the field of learning is unlimited, it
would seem proper that no time should be
wasted upon simply stultifying processes.
The teacher should study the ordinary text
books, in order to get hints concerning
oral explanations, but the pupil would
learn to cipher much faster, and in the
high school would understand the science
of numbers better, if in the primary
schools he had absolutely no text book in
arithmetic but simply performed opera
tons, after the example of the teacher
illustrating upon the blackboard. A good
teacher with Wentworth's Problems alone
could make pupils more expert in the use
of figures, than if they had full text
book and spent the time in puzzling over
its rules and explanations. The printed
matter in ordinary text books on arithme-
tic diverts the child and the teacher from
ciphering. Ciphering is an art, to be
learned by practice, by initiating examples.
A half hour daily employed in ciphering
under the guidance of living teacher will
make a better accountant, (and in the end
give better knowledge of the science of
numbers) than two hours day spent in
studying text books on arithmetic.
When the unsatisfactory result of our
New England schools in teaching children
to read, to write, and to cipher is seen,
Danish other things, and devote more time
to these fundamental branches. But this
is an error. There is time enough now
given,-it only needs to be given more
wisely. The evidence of this may be seen
in the great improvement in our schools in
regard to writing. Still more wonderful
evidence may be found in the results OBJ
tanned in the Boston schools in vocal
music, under Mr.. Luther W. Mason, whose
system we have introduced in our schools
under Mr.. Hazel; in which by a daily
practice of only ten or fifteen minutes the
children acquire an unheard of proficiency
in reading music both by the eye and by
the ear. In fact short lessons produce a
better effect upon childs mind than
longer ones; the young brain cannot be
profitably exercised upon one subject for a
long time; there is positive rest, refresh
ment. and strength to the young brain in a
judciously frequent change. A school
will make much greater progress in read
ing, writing and arithmetic after the intro
duction of other studies; only provided,
first that the old studies are taught in a
proper manner, and secondly, that the
new studies are suitably selected, with
reference to childish needs and tastes. 10
bring into primary school the abstrac-
tons of grammar, the dry bones of his
torical dates and names, the mysteries of
physiology and other high school or
collegiate branches, is absurd; but rote
singing, and reading simple music, de-
scriptive natural history and geography.
the facts OF geometry, and simple geometri-
cal drawing, are to the child's taste; and
to allow a part of his time to be given to
such studies will make him bright and in
terested, and more eager to learn his read
ing and writing and ciphering; precisely
as the selection of really instructive and
interesting reading books in place of weak
and mawkish writings will have the same
effect. The schools which are most inter-
ested in geometry, drawing, singing, and
natural history are found to be the best
readers and writers, and the quickest at
figures.
One member of our committee has with
the approval of the board, presented to
each principal of primary school copy
of his First Lessons in Geometry, which
she reads to the children and converses
with them upon it. This little book simply
presents the facts of the science, and care
fully avoids any attempt to prove or ex-
plain the reasons. These conversations are
intended as culture of the power of imagi-
nation in space, and it is earnestly MAIN
Wy luC dutlOl VI luC UOOhs llidb l6u
minutes day spent upon a paragraph in
it, is of as great practical value to every child
as the like time spent upon arithmetic.
Geometry lies as the acknowledged foun-
dation of correct drawing, of navigation,
surveying, architecture, engineering, me-
chanic arts; and of the physical sciences;
and, in connection with drawing, Guilt
Yates the power of exact observation, and
gives precision of thought and intellectual
vivacity to the scholar. Moreover in the
ordinary affairs of life every person is as
much practically concerned with the shapes
and forms of things, as with numerical
results; and the habit of rapid and accu-
rate mental analysis of forms, conduces as
much to success in all ordinary affairs, as
the habit of rapid and accurate calculation
of numbers. 1t is also adapted to the
child's mind. The newborn infant begins
his distinctively intellectual life with learn
ing to recognize things by their shapes;
and when the child is two years old can
recognize men, women, boys. girls, dogs.
horses, cows, trees and houses, household
utensils and other familiar objects from
rude outline drawings. Nature seems thus
to point out to us that a training of the i'm
agination in space, in forms, should form
part of our earliest education. In fact
there is no learning of any other NATTER
InNt bn lfv.T. AsV,na Il.