CHAPTER VIII 



GENERAL AIMS: INTRODUCTORY THOUGHTS; SUM- 

 MARY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF A COURSE 

 IN ARITHMETIC 



Arithmetic in the public schools should lead to definite 

 results along two lines, knowledge and power. The 



knowledge gained should be a sufficient 

 Knowledge 



arithmetical basis for any occupation or 



profession entered by the pupil after leaving school. It 

 should include the fundamental operations with integers; 

 fractions, both common and decimal; percentage, with its 

 application to reckoning interest. An important element 

 of this work is the recognition of number as the " tool of 

 measurement " in a concrete study of lengths, areas, vol- 

 umes, values, and other relations liable to arise in after 

 life. These topics, with an elementary study of accounts 

 and common business forms, furnish ample material for the 

 knowledge element of the subject. By the end of the 

 eighth school year all pupils should be thoroughly grounded 

 in the essentials just mentioned. 



Arithmetic offers abundant opportunity for training in 

 habits of logical thought and exact statement; while the 



ability to form a clear-cut mental picture 

 Power 



of the quantity represented by any num- 

 ber, integral or fractional, is so important that it should 

 be developed constantly. Its value is not confined to arith- 

 metic, it belongs to all subjects. All judgments and infer- 



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