78 THE NEW METHOD 



as the two younger classes, always numbering more 

 than one-half of our school, would be found in the 

 grammar schools of all large places. In the classifi- 

 cation of the high school this fact has hardly been 

 recognized ; consequently much elementary work, 

 which is of first importance in education, has been 

 left undone, and scholars have worked at great dis- 

 advantage in the higher branches. In the written 

 examination of the school last June, the higher classes 

 were found more thorough in arithmetic than in any 

 other branch of English education. Seven of the 

 nine graduates failed in the following example : 

 ' ' What is the value of five acres of land at three 

 cents per foot?" In the next example four failed: 

 11 What is the amount of $400. for three years six 

 months at seven and three tenths per cent, simple 

 interest ?" 



The sixty per cent, of failures did not arise from 

 slight mistakes, but from failing to find the proper 

 method of solution. 



This is a specimen of the best work presented while 

 the poorest work was in the understanding and use 

 of our own excellent language — a language which, 

 in the opinion of foreign scholars, is hereafter to gain 

 the sovereignty of the world. 



During the spring term the time of two teachers 

 was divided between the different branches of study 



