Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-23
PROTESTS AGAINST THE CRUEL
MATHEMATICAL sHIBBoLETH

Editor The Herald: The recent sui
eide of talented schoolgirl, 13 years
old, mainly from discouragement over
failure In arithmetic and prospect of a
second degradation before her promoted
class-this shock makes many q pen
leap in protest against that unnatural
standard which causes such discour-
agement.
Though a graded school must have
some standard for fixing those grades,
that standard should permit the aver
aging Of percentages so that high
credits In other branches would offset
poor work, in mathematics.
Today a Longfellow or a Webster
would be held back by the multiplica-
ton tablet
But, thank the Lord, there Is still,
even in this commercial age, some think
ing done that cannot be reckoned in dol
lars and cents And children born of pa
rents who dare In their aspirations cut
loose from the treadmill round of econ
omy, accounts and profit and loss, are
very likely to be lacking in common
sCnse"-as the banker would declare.
George Combe was perhaps the most
remarkable example of this. Spending
much time for nine years in its study,
he was never able to commit the multi
plication table. Many a man thinks he
read his Constitution of Man." Zerah
Colburn, on the other hand, was such a
prodigy in mathematics that he as
tonished the world with the rapidity Of
his mental calculations-tested at Har-
ward and many other colleges-yet the
effort to give him broad, general edu-
cation failed utterly.
Why, then, should our educators seize
upon this single faculty as a measure
of mental power? Why longer permit
this bloody bedstead of Procrustes to
cut short the careers of so many tall
ented children? Making them hate
teacher and school and run away from
them because required to be what they
were never made for?
Girls should, at least, be exempt
from this senseless shibboleth. Math-
ematical studies are masculine, both In
the cast of mind required for them and
in the effect upon any mind that be-
comes proficient in them. No woman
was ever created to be logician. Love
rather than wisdom is her sphere. She
becomes unsexed to the extent that she
does excel in debate and logic. Hers
should be an ambition to develop In
| tuition. affection, sympathy, persua-
siveness, gentleness and refinement.
Appropriate to her sphere of love are
music, art, poetry and all true liter
ature. She may even populariZe sci
ence-like a Margaret Morley-7though
| she was not intended for pioneer in
| this field any more than in mental phil
csophy.
One great reason why many young
men are refusing to marry is because
We are not rearing winsome daughters
for them, but only second-rate men
smart girls, but not sweet and moth
eriy ones.
Not few parents recognize the truth
OF these views to the extent of refusing
10 send their daughters to the public
schools to be coarsened and reduced to
the common level of the smart and
s,angy herd, preferring to spend large
sums upon tutoring or private schools.
Many more would do this II they could
afford the expense. 1t does not prove
| pride, but mainly a desire for better
culture. (The writer's three daughters
were kept out of the public schools of
this city and taught at home for this
reason, and for the added reason that
he believes it crime TO rub the sores
of calf into the blood Of childrenO
When the people are sufficiently
aroused by the tears of their daughters,
| by the pale cheek and nervous break
down--or, perhaps. by few more bui-
lets!-they will rise up and demand
that this nightmare Of mathematics be
| brushed aside and that some more femi-
nine branch be permitted as an elective
| for girls, even in grammar grades
| though nothing but making pictures" ="
And some day that barbarous torture
known as a written examination" Will
also be swept away. For it slays more
American children every year than the
| Collinwood disaster. In that bright day
that is coming for the dear children
who do more for us than we do for
them!-a teacher will be dismissed as
incompetent who cannot tell without
any such nervous strain upon the con-
scientious pupil whether or not any
study has been sufficiently mastered.
| Next will also disappear this grad
ing and branding Qike so many cattle)
even by that now coveted brand called
diploma" Then each child will be
educated (e-duco: called out, set free
from limitations and fear and ignor-
ance) not by our present method of
'cram''-cramming back and smother
ing the personality-but only by Great
ing an undying appetite for knowledge
and such an eagerness to try the wings
of intellect as shall give us thousands
of great men and great women where
now we have one.
GEORGE w. SAvORY.
Claremont, Cal.