Connecticut western news., 1910-07-14
WHAT OUR SCHOOLS
 SHOULD TEACH
That The Gradu- ates Maybe Fitted
 for BusinessLife.
Too Little Attention Given to Arithmetic and Those Studies NeedfuI for Earning Daily
 Bread.

We hear much these days of what is needed in way of school instruction to make education practical proposition for our boys and girls, but W. H. Flaw kins, superintendent of the Jordan Marsh Go. of Boston, summed the matter up in most practical way in 8 live address before the educational workers in Boston recently. In speaking to the topic ''What business men demand of our graduates" he said {: -
 "It is really surprising. when you stop to think of it, how little the busi- ness man requires of the school graduate in the way of book learning-so little, in fact, that it does seem as though every boy or girl ought to leave school thoroughly equipped with at least these things. &4.
 Studies that are Needed
 "The child's prayer to the teacher should be: Give us that which will help us to earn our daily bread And this is the answer to that prayer Teach the boy to write good plain hand and to express himself in the English lan- guage with precision and brevity teach him to spell correctly; teach him to do examples in common arithmetic such as addition. subtraction, extension, discount, and percentage inculcate honesty, truth fullness, courtesy, accuracy, initiative, persistency and love of hard work in- to that boy Then you have the answer to his prayer. Teach him those things by all means, if 1t takes every month and every year of his school life and causes the neglect of the other things, for boy or a girl who enters a business house with this equipment, plus average ability, will succeed"
 MT. Hawkins cited examples of defi- ciencies in writing, precision and brevity in speech and spelling and then took up arithmetic, saying:
 Not Equal to Old Schools
 "Our head cashier. woman who has been with us many years and who is &C., countable for all the money that is taken over our counters, and under whose au- thority are. the many cashiers in our employ, tells me that the girls we hire to- day are not nearly as we'll grounded in arithmetic as those we used to hire ten years ago.
 "Why is it? don't believe it is the teachers fault. I am inclined to believe that the fault lies with the system, with those who have the selection of the studies that must be taken up by the pupil, and that the time of the bog and girl is taken up with the Jess essential studies at the expense of the essential.
 We have a salesmanship school in our store, to which we send our own salespeople each day. One study to which we have given much attention is arithmetic. Seems too bad that we should have to do this, doesn't it? At the class graduation a few days ago asked several young women who were grammar school graduates what studies they felt they had not been given enough instruction in in the public schools and the unanimous opinion was the very studies have been talking about.
 What to Teach
 Teach boy that an act of dishonesty will dog his footsteps all through life.
 Teach him that courtesy is the little golden key that will open the great heavy door of opportunity. Teach him the value of accuracy in everything that he does. Teach him that presidency will get him job and that hard work will