Lippincott's Practical Arithmetic: Embracing the Science and Practical Applications of Numbers

Excerpt from Lippincott's Practical Arithmetic: Embracing the Science and Practical Applications of Numbers

Arithmetic is both a science and an art is not only generally conceded, but emphatically affirmed. One, therefore, investigating the methods of instruction adopted in school-rooms would logically expect to find both aspects of the subject distinctly put in evidence. What is universally acknowledged and proclaimed as essential and vital to any true system of arithmetical education the investigator, however, would fail to find distinctly characterizing either the instructions given by the average teacher or the work required of the average pupil. What we mean is, that if he saw anything notable, he would see Art conspicuous in the foreground, while Science, if visible at all, sat mute far back. There might be seen, to be sure, remarkable skill displayed in many instances, and results brought forth with surprising facility; but, in it all, Science, that alone imparts life to action and informs the mind, would have little or no part.

The great error is that arithmetical exercises and problems are too frequently - nay, almost invariably - set up like so many ten-pins, to be knocked down by mechanical action, without any inquiry as to the underlying and fundamental principles upon which action is based.

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