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Division of the Work.

II

GENERAL HINTS

The five chapters constituting Part I. of Mathematics for Common Schools should be completed by the end of the fourth school year. Chapter I., with the additional oral work needed in the case of young pupils, will occupy about two years; the remaining four chapters should not take more than half a year each. When the Grube system is used, and the work of the first two years is exclusively oral, it will be possible, by omitting much of the easier portions of the first two chapters, to cover, during the third year, the ground contained in Chapters I., II., and III. The remaining eight arithmetic chapters constitute half-yearly divisions for the second four years of school.

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Additions and Omissions. The teacher should freely supplement the work of the text-book when she finds it necessary to do so; and she should not hesitate to leave a topic that her pupils fully understand, even though they may not have worked all the examples given in connection therewith. A very large number of exercises is necessary for such pupils as can devote a half-year to the study of the matter furnished in each chapter. In the case of pupils of greater maturity, it will be possible to make more rapid progress by passing to the next topic as soon as the previous work is fairly well understood.

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Oral and Written Work. The heading "Slate Problems" is merely a general direction, and it should be disregarded by the teacher when the pupils are able to do the work "mentally." The use of the pencil should be demanded only so far as it may

be required. It is a pedagogical mistake to insist that all of the pupils of a class should set down a number of figures that are not needed by the brighter ones. As an occasional exercise, it may be advisable to have scholars give all the work required to solve a problem, and to make a written explanation of each step in the solution; but it should be the teacher's aim to have the majority of the examples done with as great rapidity as is consistent with absolute correctness. It will be found that, as a rule, the quickest workers are the most accurate.

Many of the slate problems can be treated by some classes as "sight" examples, each pupil reading the question for himself from the book, and writing the answer at a given signal without putting down any of the work.

Use of Books. - It is generally recommended that books be placed in pupils' hands as early as the third school year. Since many children are unable at this stage to read with sufficient intelligence to understand the terms of a problem, this work should be done under the teacher's direction, the latter reading the questions while the pupils follow from their books. In later years, the problems should be solved by the pupils from the books with practically no assistance whatever from the teacher.

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Conduct of the Recitation. Many thoughtful educators consider it advisable to divide an arithmetic class into two sections, for some purposes, even where its members are nearly equal in attainments. The members of one division of such a class may work examples from their books while the others write the answers to oral problems given by the teacher, etc.

Where a class is thus taught in two divisions, the members of each should sit in alternate rows, extending from the front of the room to the rear. Seated in this way, a pupil is doing a different kind of work from those on the right and the left, and he would not have the temptation of a neighbor's slate to lead him to compare answers.

As an economy of time, explanations of new subjects might be given to the whole class; but much of the arithmetic work should be done in "sections," one of which is under the immediate direction of the teacher, the other being employed in "seat" work. In the case of pupils of the more advanced classes, "seat" work should consist largely of "problems" solved without assistance. Especial pains have been taken to so grade the problems as to have none beyond the capacity of the average pupil that is willing to try to understand its terms. It is not necessary that all the members of a division should work the same problems at a given time, nor the same number of problems, nor that a new topic should be postponed until all of the previous problems have been solved.

Whenever it is possible, all of the members of the division working under the teacher's immediate direction should take part in all the work done. In mental arithmetic, for instance, while only a few may be called upon for explanations, all of the pupils should write the answers to each question. The same is true of much of the sight work, the approximations, some of the special drills, etc.

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Drills and Sight Work. To secure reasonable rapidity, it is necessary to have regular systematic drills. They should be employed daily, if possible, in the earlier years, but should never last longer than five or ten minutes. Various kinds are suggested, such as sight addition drills, in Arts. 3, 11, 24, 26, etc.; subtraction, in Arts. 19, 50, 53, etc.; multiplication, in Arts. 71, 109, etc.; division, in Arts. 199, 202, etc.; counting by 2's, 3's, etc., in Art. 61; carrying, in Art. 53, etc. For the young pupil, those are the most valuable in which the figures are in his sight, and in the position they occupy in an example; see Arts. 3, 34, 164, etc.

Many teachers prepare cards, each of which contains one of the combinations taught in their respective grades. Showing one of these cards, the teacher requires an immediate answer

from a pupil. If his reply is correct, a new card is shown to the next pupil, and so on. Other teachers write a number of combinations on the blackboard, and point to them at random, requiring prompt answers. When drills remain on the board for any considerable time, some children learn to know the results of a combination by its location on the board, so that frequent changes in the arrangement of the drills are, therefore, advisable. The drills in Arts. 111, 112, and 115 furnish a great deal of work with the occasional change of a single figure.

For the higher classes, each chapter contains appropriate drills, which are subsequently used in oral problems. It happens only too frequently that as children go forward in school they lose much of the readiness in oral and written work they possessed in the lower grades, owing to the neglect of their teachers to continue to require quick, accurate review work in the operations previously taught. These special drills follow the plan of the combinations of the earlier chapters, but gradually grow more difficult. They should first be used as sight exercises, either from the books or from the blackboard.

To secure valuable results from drill exercises, the utmost possible promptness in answers should be insisted upon.

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Definitions, Principles, and Rules. Young children should not memorize rules or definitions. They should learn to add by adding, after being first shown by the teacher how to perform the operation. Those not previously taught by the Grube method should be given no reason for "carrying." In teaching such children to write numbers of two or three figures, there is nothing gained by discussing the local value of the digits. During the earlier years, instruction in the art of arithmetic should be given with the least possible amount of science. While principles may be incidentally brought to the view of the children at times, there should be no cross-examination thereon. It may be shown, for instance, that subtraction is the reverse of addition, and that multiplication is a short method of combining equal

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numbers, etc.; but care should be taken in the case of pupils below about the fifth school year not to dwell long on this side of the instruction. By that time, pupils should be able to add, subtract, multiply, and divide whole numbers; to add and subtract simple mixed numbers, and to use a mixed number as a multiplier or a multiplicand; to solve easy problems, with small numbers, involving the foregoing operations and others containing the more commonly used denominate units. Whether or not they can explain the principles underlying the operations is of next to no importance, if they can do the work with reasonable accuracy and rapidity.

When decimal fractions are taken up, the principles of Arabic notation should be developed; and about the same time, or somewhat later, the principles upon which are founded the operations in the fundamental processes, can be briefly discussed.

Definitions should in all cases be made by the pupils, their mistakes being brought out by the teacher through appropriate. questions, criticisms, etc. Systematic work under this head

should be deferred until at least the seventh year.

The use of unnecessary rules in the higher grades is to be deprecated. When, for instance, a pupil understands that per cent means hundredths, that seven per cent means seven hundredths, it should not be necessary to tell him that 7 per cent of 143 is obtained by multiplying 143 by .07. It should be a fair assumption that his previous work in the multiplication of common and of decimal fractions has enabled him to see that 7 per cent of 143 is of 143 or 143 x .07, without information other than the meaning of the term " per cent."

When a pupil is able to calculate that 15% of 120 is 18, he should be allowed to try to work out for himself, without a rule, the solution of this problem: 18 is what per cent of 120? or of this: 18 is 15% of what number? These questions should present no more difficulty in the seventh year than the following examples in the fifth: (a) Find the cost of ton of hay at $12 per ton. (b) When hay is worth $12 per ton, what part of a

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