How to Teach Arithmetic - 1914 Author:Joseph Clifton Brown Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PART TWO CHAPTER III ACCURACY Prevalence of Inaccuracy A common criticism of the schools of to-day is that the pupils have been permitted to become lax... more » and careless in thought and in expression. The modern pupil is expected to study many things which were not taught in the schools of the last generation, but there is truth in the assertion that no small part of our knowledge is superficial and inaccurate, "a collection of vague ideas rather than clear cut notions about definite things." It is asserted that while the pupils of to-day can think and write on more subjects than could the students of former years, their expressions are less clear and coherent. Teachers should not turn a deaf ear to the complaints about inaccuracy of thought and statement. The complaints come from many sources and seem to be corroborated by overwhelming evidence. The employer maintains that it is difficult to hire a boy who is accurate in statement and who has a mastery of even the four fundamental operations. Teachers in the upper grades contend that the pupils who enter their classes are not prepared to carry the work because their thinking is illogical and their ability in computation is poor. One writer asserts that all the complaints about inaccuracy are an evidence that accuracy is one of the goals which education ought to reach. Ex-President Eliotenumerates among the essentials of the cultured mind the ability to think clear and straight. Accuracy is one of the marks of the scholar. The system of education which minimizes the importance of accuracy of thought aud of expression is relegating to a subordinate position one of the essentials of true scholarship and culture. Accuracy of Thought If there is one subject rather than another in the curriculum which should be characteriz...« less