Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-10-04
TEACHING THE THREE RS.

TEACHING THE THREE RS.
What do our schools really teach?
A writer in a New York paper asserts
that over 5000 positions in various
lines Of business are open to young
girls and boys varying in age from hf>
teen to eighteen years, and not thou-
sand applicants competent to fill them,
tho $4,000 young people are clamorins
to secure the work. Why are they NOT
competent? Because the boys and
girls who seek work do not know how
to spell. their penmanship is inexcusa-
BILE. and their arithmetic execrable.
A big New York firm the other day
advertised for check girls, salespeople
and boys for the delivery department.
OF the $50 applicants mostly young
people and for the most part claiming
to have recently left school, and pre-
senting certificates of graduation from
the grade of grammar schools, and In
many cases part or all of the high
school course. less than fifty could I'LL
out an application blank without as
sistance. Only few could write a
legible hand, one that could be read
at the first attempt, while the spelling
was worse than anything Of which
Carnegie ever dreamed.
Another firm advertised and received
applications by mail only. The col
lection of replies were apparently SAD
commentary on the efficiency of the
public school in the matter of teaching
the fundamental studies in the grades.
Boys and girls of II years wrote a
hand that would hardly do credit to
child in the primary. They could not
spell properly the names of firms with
whom they had been employed. Names
that are familiar to nearly every boy
and girl in New York We're oftener
mis-spelled than correctly spelled.
seegle, Hooper, Wonemekker, Masy's,
Croufot, were some of the numerous
ways we'll known firm names were
Here is the application of an IS
year old who had five years school
ing:
Dear Ser like pesitne in the
stor as asiste selleor and halter work
and help take caer foar In my falmy.
I have a good figger am 18 years olde
and am 5 yeares in your choles."
It might be supposed that the mat
ter Of spelling, penmanship and figures
would not matter much in such minor
positions, but every merchant and bus
mess man knows that mistake in
figuring up sales slip. a wrong or
illegible address, means the loss OF
profits and the loss of customers.
The experience of the New York
merchants at first glance might seem
to indicate that our public schools
have taken a backward step in the
matter of teaching the rudimentary
branches. But do the facts warrant
such a conclusion? 1t is altogether
likely that the boy and girl OF today
can spell as well, write as we'll and
Cipher" better than the boys and
girls of the good old days. The fact is,
more is demanded of them than was
required of their progenitors. Our
complex modern life, with it's busy
marts and countless activities, requires
more efficiency and at an earlier age
than ever before. The New York sit
uation, too, might be regarded as ABB
normal. The citysteens with ignorant
and vicious classes. The children are
born of illiterate parents. and the task
of educating them is difficult.
It does not prove that we have not
advanced in education and educational
methods. Is there any lesson in it
for the school man, it is in the need
it presents of meeting the demand, not
so much for groundwork in the three
RS like grandfather taught, but for
something better, for progress along
that line as well as in other lines of
education.