Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-03-08
EDUCATIONAL.
Arithmetio-Is il the Most Important STUDY
of the Sehoolroom?-Tho0 Cues
ton Answered.a
Public Opinion on Educational Topics as
Expressed by Noted Educators.
TIE sTUEY OF ARITHMETIC.

L01c6tt0H, SAYS:
F., I believe that after reading and writ
ing,-the necessary tools for the study
! of any subject.-the proper study of
| arithmetic is by far the most import
! ant study Of the schoolroom; it pro-
/ duces soundness and clearness of
| thought, and quickness and accuracy
| Of execution; in short, common sense
| and the power to use it. In times
! past, when every man was his own
| lawyer, doctor, shoemaker, and what
| not, and when mans education was
confined to the three Rs. il was neces-
sary that these three Rs should en-
brace q good deal; everything requir-
| ing the use of numbers was called art =
netic,-such as square and cube root,
| the progression, allegation, ETC.. but
do not see that these subjects any more
form proper part of arithmetic than
| do logarithms or any of those prob
! lens of the higher mathematics, which
| involve the use of numbers. ! should
like to see arithmetic stripped of ali
subjects which cannot be thoroughly
understood by the pupil as he goes
| along, and which can not be more
easily treated by the aid of arithmetic.
pure and simple, than in any other
| way. | do not want to see arithmetic
stripped, however. of what [ consid-
| er to be its ''irst, foremost. and abso-
lutely indispensable" characteristics:
namely, the power that it gives to think
clearly and soundly. Where we have
| clear, sound thought, we are pretty
| sure to see numerical results obtained
with q fair degree of quickuess and
accuracy, but the converse of this is
| by no means true. Now it is Just
here that General Walker makes him
self liable to be misinterpreted;, he ex-
presses so strongly his desire for quick
ness and accuracy that one can be eX-
| cused for supposing that he would
lay little stress on the thought element.
Does not the business man value more
highly in his employee intelligence
and the ability to deduce logical con-
clusion from a premise slightly re-
moved than absolute infallibility in
adding a column of figures? Is not an
intelligent man, though liable to err,
better than machine, which may
never be at fault within its own linn
tied sphere Of action?
General Walker deprecates logic in
arithmetic, such problems, for ex-
ample, as require ''ten or fifteen min
utes (of thought), when the mere adj
ditioD, multiplication, ETC.. required
would not occupy as many seconds"
Whenever l find 4 Woodworking
boy failing to make progress in alge-
bra, in trigOnometry, or in the differ
entail calculus, OF whenever find boy
who seems to have no head for bust
ness, [ am convinced that the chances
are, ninety-nine out of one hundred,
that his failure is due not to innate
stupidity, not to lack of power to do
numerical work with quickness and
accuracy, but to lack of previous drill
on just such problems as that given
above. The boy needs the logic of
practical problems, which the | ,siness
man calls common sense; without this,
he is unfit for business, lie is unfit for
advanced work, he is unfit for any
position in life that requires head.
General Walker recommends for
the young child exercise that is ''easy
and pleasant" and says that the facui-
ties should be ''aided and fostered BY
gentle and agreeable practice" Now
that practice which will be found easy
and pleasant to any ten-year-old boy
of spirit will certainly not tend toward
his best mental development. 1t is no
more natural for q growing boy with
an uniformed character to find what is
best for him ''gentle and agreeable,
than it is for an unbroken colt to pre-
fer the restraint of q harness to the
freedom of pasture. Is the power to
skate on the "outer edge" or that con-
troll of the feet, legs, hands, and mus.
cles of the back which one needs in
order to become q good horseback
rider. or effectiveness of 'sserve" in
the game OF tennis, ever acquired by
work that is easy and gentle? That
the desire to succeed and other causes
make such work agreeable and pleas
ant to some people, | will not deny,
but the work is hard work, and the
boy VINO does it continually finds him
self confronted by problems Of strength
or skill that are beyond his powers.
do not believe that gentle, easy eXer-
else is any more conducive to mental
than to physical power. tits not only
by hard work and persistent effort that
any thing can be done in either d.
Tection. 1t is the province of the
teacher to make hard work pleasant
to the pupil by building up in him 4
character which will cause him to pre-
fer remote benefit earned by toll to
present ease.
The great defect in teaching arith-
metic, and, in fact, in teaching any
other subject, is that the teachers per-
spectiye is all askew; he lays more
stress on technical applications than
on fundamental principles; he makes
a simple subject seem complex; in or
der to cover a good deal of ground in
a short time, he makes the example of
to-day seem to depend on the exam
nothing but another application Of
fundamental principles and common
sense. In teaching interest, for ex-
ample, he bases his work on the for
mula l = prt, or on some rule or state
ment technically expressed, instead of
on simple reasoning like that required
in the following problem:
If man can have the use OF horse
for Sc week, what must he pay for
the horse for 80 weeks? What for the
use of 4 horses for so weeks, etc.?
General Sherman in his march to
the sea may have done well to burn
his bridges behind him, but in arith-
metic the pupil should never allow the
road back to the starting-point to be-
come overgrown or INSTRUCTED, for he
will need to go back again and again,
and he will be surprised to find how
quickly he can get back. even from
the furthest outposts. One of the best
pupils in algebra that ever had said
as he was finishing the subject, Il do
not see that there is much that is new