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Untitled Article
for inward feelings . To know a few names is to be accounted wise amon g the sons of men ; and when we contemplate the vast field of facts which nature presents for research , it is melancholy to think of the time lost , and the faculties not merely wasted but destroyed , in the acquirement of a few words totally worthless , or of the signs alone of truly valuable ideas .
The present systems of teaching are faulty in one of two ways ; either ( as is the case with the dead languages ) they blunt the faculties by employing them on that which yields no real profit ; 01 % as is the case with many sciences , for instance , that of numbers , they present the knowledge in too abstract a form . Every thing
is easy and delightful if one begins at the beginnin g , and goes on step by step ; but hitherto few instructors , or writers of books , have condescended to g o to the elements of the subjects which the y have professed to teach . To be able to analyse and simplify is indeed only given to a very high order of minds ; it would be much for the benefit of mankind if master minds would undertake
the task of making the rough places smooth , and the high places level to minds of inferior capacity . It is with extreme pleasure that we see this good work begun and most successfully executed in regard to the science of numbers , in a little book entitled ' Arithmetic for Young Children / ( published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge . ) Arithmetic is a science so sure , capable of such complete verification , that it requires a greatdeal of skill to render it irksome . Afford ing the mind that most exquisite sensation , viz . complete satisfaction in the realization of
anticipated results , it is one of the most favourite of the mental exercises of children . We speak of mental arithmetic , for the mechanical routine of cyphering cannot be interesting until it ceases to be mechanical , i . e . until the pupil has a clear idea of the reason of all its technicalities . The author of ' Arithmetic for Young Children' has wisely formed his little exercises upon data botli interesting and instructive ; and arithmetic should always thus be connected with facts suited to the age of the pupil . Why , when the sciences present such an inexhaustible store of data to which the laws of number may be applied , should the pupil ' s mind be kept to pounds , shillings , and pence , and other matters which , however interesting they may be to the social man , can scarcely interest the child ? of
This first sta ^ e arithmetic is * intended for the instruction of children between three or four , and six or seven . ' It teaches the names of numbers to twenty , and figures to nine ; yet we will venture 1 o say that a child who should have gone through it would have clearer ideas , and more real arithmetical knowledge , and more love of arithmet ic , than many who are far iulvauced iu Joyce . Nothing can be more beautiful than the wise and playful adaptation of the questions to tin * childish capacity , or tlie slow , but most sure , progressiveness of the lessons . The pupil is always
Untitled Article
Arithmetic for Young Children . 285
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1835, page 285, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2644/page/61/
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