The Weekly Tallahasseean., 1901-02-07
the wall unless they are well edu-
Gated. - L. c. Raj.
IS Arithmetic the Most IMPORTANT
Part of EducationP
FIRST PAPER

1
The American EncyclOpmdic Die
tionary says education" is derived
from ''educo, ere" (exduco, to lead or
draw out), and defines the word as
''prOperly, the educing, leading out,
or drawing out, the latent powers of
an individual" Nevertheless, there
are dictionaries which derive the
word from "educO, are," to nOurish.
Students and scholars will con-
tlnue to wraDgle over the question
as to which is correct, each holding
to the former or the latter, according
as he considers education a drawing
out of ones powers, or as a nourish-
ing anda feeding of his mind. Per-
Sonaily, | adhere to the latter phasis
as the more t~nabie, yet have no de-
sire to debate the question hereafter
or TO argue 1t now, The subject of
education is SO very broad | shall not
attempt 20 discuss it, but merely pro
pose to give the results of some inter
eStlng experiments | have made
among siudeIitS of the sixth, seventh
and eighth grades of the Waldo pub
tic school. Series Of questions were
submitted to these students, without
any warning, that they should
give their own opinion entirely
These questions all related to
educational work. They were asked
# both girls and boys. The ques-
ION was put: What is edu~aiipr:"
Prom the answers given, it seems
The majority Of the s,udepts con-
Sider knowledge, or learrliitg, As ~
term Synonymous with eeslcalion.
In only one case did the atlSwpr-
that of a girl--take into account
knowledge derived front other
sources than books. Then j list Of
six questions was given, that / in;eht
see what these students considered
the most important thing in the way
Of an education. The questiohs were
as follows:
!. Ut the common school bisanchrS,
which do you like best?
>. Which do you dislike nipst?
3. Which do you think most I'M
portant?
+, Which do you think dhc Icas;
important?
>. Which do you thin / vour
teacher thinks most important?
&. Which do you think bic con-
slider the least important?
Twenty-four lists of answets we're
gwen me. From these it dEvolveG
that the most popular brA Inch of
study with these students l. arith
metic. Fourteen voted fdr this
branch, while the next most bopuIar
-reading---received only fOut votes.
The question as 20 the most iunp0o-
ular study was not so decisive.
Spelling led the list with onIF seven
votes, while geography, ariti ilmetic,
grammar and history each received
four votes. Arithmetic was likewise
considered most important, b5lt by
comparatively modest plurality of
nine votes Reading comes a close
secondly with seven, and grammar re-
ceives five. By a vote of ten to
seven, it seems that these students
consider geography least IMPORTANT,
the latter number being given to his
tory.
The fifth and sixth questions were
asked only to see if an undue por-
tion of time had been given to any
branch, or an undue stress laih b upon
it. The result was very gratifying,
as every branch, except GEOGRAPHY,
one or more votes. How
ever, arithmetic received eight votes,
followed by reading with seven. The
one supposed to be least favored was
voted by the plurality of ten to be
geography. /
From these and similar questions,
it seems to me there is no question
in the mind of the average student
as to which branch is most impor-
tant. 1t was my purpose to combat
the idea that arithmetic is due so
much consideration, but the discus
sion must be left for another paper. |
H. III. NORRIS.
Waldo, Fla, Dec. ii, 1900.
Graofioo, fo tho cfa;fua of |