The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-11-30
Grammar Section

The session of the grammar school
section was held in the drawing room
on the top floor, at 2 o'clock. About IS
| teachers were present. Charles S.
| Alexander of the Normal Training
school, Fitchburg, was chairman. He
! introduced George I. Aldrich, superin-
| tendent of schools of Brookline. Mr.. AL
drich made an able address on Some
Present Tendencies in the Teaching of
Arithmetic, in which he quite upset
| the position Of that study as a method
of securing intellectual development.
He said the schoolroom floor is di-
vided into two sections, a section of
pupils and a teachers section. The
rule was that neither should interfere
with the other, which broadly inter-
preted meant that the teacher was to
do nothing for the pupils that they
might do for themselves. The problem
was how to get pupils in the upper
grades to study. An ingenious high
that? I have had nature lessons, and
music lessons and all kinds of lessons,
but 1 have never studied
There was much to be said in favor
of oral teaching, but it plainly required
preparation and self control. Arith-
metic has a place in the common school
curriculum because of its use as a con-
vention in society. From this conven-
tional standpoint little preparation was
required. The necessary operations
were few and simple Their educa-
tional value was mooted The claimants
for mathematics as a mind developer
were still in argument. The tendency
is however to a simplificatiOn of the
process of teaching. Teachers deal in
smaller numbers, for instance.
Constant appeals to the understand
ling of the pupil are made before an ap-
peal to his memory Arithmetic should
be taught effectively. The mind is
thus bright in contact with the thing
to be known. This is the way it is
done in primary schools. 1t would be
better if the same method was applied
to older children in the higher grades
A boy has not a new kind of mind be-
cause he is feet tall and weighs $50
pounds.
! 1t would not be instructing the pupil
in knowledge of what window is to
tell him it is an orifice in an edifice for
the admission of luminiferous particles
of ether. The definition of network
in JohnsOn's dictionary was not much
better. The photographer said a net
work was "reticulated and decussated
with intervals between the interstices."
1t is matter of congratulation that
objective methods of study had re-
placed the old methods The old books
were being replaced with new books
which simplifed the study. These new
books were sometimes "scrappy," but
We're nevertheless much superior to the
old books which were written from the
standpoint of the author and the adult
rather than from the standpoint of the
child
The teaching Of arithmetic was of re-
spectacle antiquity in Massachusetts,
Nevertheless the original provision for
common school instruction in 1647, pro-
vided only for instruction in reading
and writing 1t was 142 years later
that provision was made for instruction
in reading, writing, arithmetic. ortho-
graphy and good behaviour.
There was too little blackboard
teaching in the ordinary school, 1t
was good exercise for each individual
in the class to go to the board and ex-
plain the mental operations that were
necessary to him in doing the work.
Mental arithmetic should be given
more prominence Too many children
found it necessary to go for pencil and
paper when a problem was given to
: them. The exercises were apt not to
be strenuous enough. Teachers often
failed to bring out of a class of 40 pupils
all that was in them. It is fortunate
that the same value does not attach to
the study Of arithmetic that attached
in former years.
Miss NJ. B. Doland, of the Fitchburg.
said the excessive value given to arith-
metic and its study by Americans
might be due to the fact that they were
a commercial people. She went over
the ground covered by the previous
speaker,remaining in substantial agree
ment with him. Henry Whittemore.
who was to have delivered a critic
: paper, was not present He is princi-
pal of the birmingham Normal School