ON STUDIES MOST SUITABLE fOR ELEiMENTARV feCHOOLS. 153 



numerous measurements. When percentages are reached, they may be 

 usefully considered as decimal quantities as well as common fractions. 

 It should be remembered that our monetary system admits of convenient 

 decimal treatment; for, expressed as decimals of 1/., we have 2s. =0-1; 

 ls. = 0-05; Gd.=0025 ; k/.=0-004 (about) or 0-0042; and ^(/.=0-001 

 (about). With a little practice, therefore, it is easy to decimalise money at 

 sight. 



Measurements of lines, areas and volumes may be introduced much 

 earlier than usual. Sets of hardwood models can be obtained at a low- 

 cost and should be put in the hands of the pupils to examine, measure 

 and sketch, the measurements being expressed in decimals. By work of 

 this kind and other measures of physical quantities, arithmetic may be 

 correlated with scale-drawing, geometry and the use of symbols in 

 formula?. 



Concrete Experience should precede Ccdculation. 



Too much attention is usually devoted to currency calculations or 

 money sums, while decimals, measuring and weighing, and work with 

 realistic devices which teach the principles of arithmetic, arc neglected. 

 Children should not be troubled with any computations of this kind until 

 they have fingered boxes of imitation coins and have clear ideas of the 

 value of the tokens of commerce in buying and selling. When they are 

 familiar with the relative values of coins and are able to answer simple 

 questions orally, it is time enough to introduce work to be done on paper. 

 If this plan is followed there will be fewer instances of children working 

 sums involving amounts up to, say, 100/., while they do not know what 

 change to expect if they spend 2>\d. out of Is. 



Tables of money, like tables of length, capacity or weight, should be 

 based upon actual work and sense observations, even if they have to be 

 committed to memory afterward. A working knowledge of our common 

 weights and measures may be thus obtained ; and the many tables which 

 cannot be dealt with in this way ought not to be considered in the work 

 of elementary schools. Tables and sums relating to troy weight, 

 apothecaries' weight, dry or corn measure and apothecaries' fluid 

 measure might, therefore, well be dispensed with; the time thus saved might 

 be given to work of which the pupil understands the significance. The 

 cardirial principle in the teaching should be that the pupils are practically 

 acquainted with all the weights and measures involved in their calcula- 

 tions, for without this knowledge or experience the work in arithmetic 

 becomes merely a matter of mental gymnastics. Upon this point it is 

 satisfactory to record that the latest ' Regulations for the Instruction and 

 Training of Pupil Teachers'' specifically exclude from the syllabus of 

 arithmetic troy and apothecaries' measures, rules for fiiiding square and 

 cube roots, practice, ratio, proportion (except by the unitary or fractional 

 method), stocks and shares, true discount, scales of notation, foreign 

 exchanges, compound interest, recurring decimals and complicated fractions. 



Value of Mental ExerciseSi 



In classwork there should be plenty of oral exercises and practice in 

 mental arithmetic, in order to cultivate quickness and intelligence. It is 



' Cd. 3012; prioe 2ir?. 



