ARITHMETIC 



347 



ARITHMETIC 



.RITHMETIC . Why must we study 

 arithmetic? Why does it hold an important 

 place in the list of school studies? Investi- 

 gations by teachers and business men have 

 shown that there never before has been such 

 widespread need of arithmetical knowing-. 

 because there is no other subject that is so 

 closely connected with every-day needs and 

 because widening fields of labor demand more 

 and more a practical understanding of figur- 

 ing, or working with numbers and number 

 ons. 



What does the world demand of boys and 

 girls at the age of fourteen, sixteen or eight- 

 een who leave school to become workers? 

 The cry from employers in every line of work 

 is for employees with a good general knowledge 

 of arithmetic. It cannot be too plainly stated 

 that the young person going into the "working 

 world" will have the best opportunity who 

 carries with him a knowledge of arithmetic. 

 It is the key to the ordinary problems which 

 will confront him daily. 



We must study arithmetic, then, because it 

 is a very practical subject indeed, the most 

 practical branch in all school work. You may 

 read somewhat haltingly and without true in- 

 flection; you may be pardoned for occasional 

 errors in speech, but the exact science of num- 

 bers as developed in arithmetic demands 

 accuracy and precision. This is the reason 

 that dozens of pages in this set of books are 

 devoted to a clear and intelligent explanation 

 of every department of arithmetic. 



Besides the practical value of the subject, 

 there is an important cultural value, which, it 

 is tme, is of secondary importance, but yet 

 worthy of attention. Both phases are dis- 

 cussed below. 



The Practical Value of Arithmetic. As the 

 yean go by for the boy in the industrial 

 world, he desires to advance, and father and 

 mother earnestly share this ambition. Accord- 

 ing to their ability they have given him, dur- 

 ing the years they have sent him to school, 

 the tools he needs to work with. Son 



it has been discovered that he is equipped but 

 poorly and that he lacks some vital knowledge. 

 He may have begun in the machine shop; in 

 the laboratory of some large plant; in the 

 office of an engineer, contractor, etc. He finds 

 almost invariably that to get toward the top 

 he must have more mathematics. If he has a 

 good foundation in arithmetic he may easily 

 take up algebra or geometry and so prepare 

 to make headway in his work. For all me- 

 chanical work, all structural work, civil, me- 

 chanical, electrical, much mathematics is 

 required. The laying out of streets, lots, 

 farms, gardens, roads; the building of bridges, 

 canals, railroads, sewers, sky-scrapers, subways, 

 all require mathematics to survey the ground, 

 to experiment in strain and stress and thus 

 suit material to the demands of the situation 

 and avoid accident and loss; to insure safety 

 of life and property; to estimate costs, and 

 so on. Chemistry is making new and large 

 demands upon mathematics. The boy who 

 goes into a laboratory of a large manufactur- 

 ing plant needs fair control of arithmetic of 

 common and decimal fractions, ratio, percent- 

 age while he is doing the simple work of a 

 novice working by formulas. For a few years 

 he does this initial workj gets fair wages and 

 feels successful. But soon he looks forward 

 to advancement, to become a leader, a maker 

 of formulas, not a follower only, and finds 

 that to advance he must h:ivr more mathe- 

 matics, and if he has had a good foundation 

 in arithmetic he easily takes up the advanced 

 work. Every mother should be proud to 

 know that each hour she devotes at home 

 KI:I.!IIIL' the uncertain steps of her children into 

 the field of arithmetic she is making an invest- 

 ment that will return in later years a hundred- 

 fold, 



Boys going to work in railroad yards, rail- 

 road offices, express offices, and so on, report 

 that there is a very sharp demand upon them 

 for clever manipulation of figures. They find 

 the same if th< >f many of the 



various departments of government works 



