THE VILLAGE SCHOOL .sx By WILLIAM CLAYTON , M.B.E. ( Appleton Roebuck School) .sx VI .sx The Approach to Mathematics .sx It is probable that the only attention given to mathematics in the majority of our village schools is to be found in the arithmetic lesson .sx The influence of the old " payment by results " system , where it was necessary to get three sums right out of four to secure a certain " pass , " is still with us .sx Hence we find that our children rarely like arithmetic , and this hampers successful teaching .sx For many years we have endeavoured to make our teaching as practical as possible by making it applicable to the environment of the child .sx It is refreshing , therefore , to find that a committee of experts , drawn from Inspectors of the Board of Education , university professors , and teachers in all types of schools , has issued a report to our Authority on " The Teaching of Mathematics in our Senior Schools , " and has come to the following definite conclusion , viz .sx : " Mathematics has a twofold purpose :sx " 1 .sx To enable the children to deal successfully with the ordinary calculations which will arise in everyday life , and .sx " 2 .sx To enable them to analyse a simple problem with confidence and to develop the power of making clear oral and written statements .sx " Modern teachers will welcome especially the phrase last quoted , for it is impossible to make clear oral or written statements without a thorough under-standing of the subject to be spoken or written about .sx Older teachers will agree that under the old regime it was possible to drill a pupil to get three sums right out of four without the pupil under-standing what the sums were about .sx There is a world-wide difference between mechanical accuracy and the power to make a clear statement about the processes involved in securing that accuracy .sx When I was in Standard IV I believe I knew my square measure table , and could work a reduction sum in it as well as most boys , but I was grown up before I understood fully where the yard came .sx from in 30square yards = 1 square pole or perch .sx My pupils could not understand that line in the table , so we went out into the yard and measured out our five and a-half yards each way to form the square pole .sx When we had connected up the cross lines to form our 301 squares , we found that we had twenty-five perfect squares , ten half squares , and in one corner the mysterious square yard .sx It was as great a delight to me as to my pupils to find how that yard came in , and in order that successive generations of pupils should benefit by our discovery we made permanent drawings in our yard , which have been repainted many times .sx Since that day all our mathematical exercises have been practically demonstrated whenever it was possible .sx As a result , though our mechanical accuracy may have deteriorated slightly , the pupils can and do make clear oral and written statements about the why and wherefore of their work .sx We have taken out our Gunter's chain and measured the mile on the roadways leading in every direction from our school gate .sx We have marked this distance , together with the 1/4 , 1/2 , and mile , by cutting varying sized arrows in the sods on the road sides .sx We have timed ourselves in walking , running , or skipping these distances as the years have gone by , so all our pupils have a definite knowledge of what a real mile is .sx We have gone into the fields and set out a chain from a definite point with twenty-two children a yard apart to form it .sx We have bounded our rectangular acre with living posts a chain apart , ten by one , five by two , four by two and a-half , as the case needed .sx We have divided these acres up into roods and the roods into perches .sx Because the pupils have been used to mark off the chains , or poles , they have become familiar with terms used in their lessons , and have not only been happier in their work , but have got a definite idea of distance and space indelibly fixed in their minds .sx We have set out an acre in the forms of right-angled and equilateral triangles , and in these ways , by combining arithmetic and geometry , we have laid an understandable foundation for mathematical development .sx We have gone into the fields where the plough-man was at work and with our rulers have measured the width of the furrow he turned over in his journey up the field .sx With our chain we have found out the length and width of the field , and in our class-rooms have calculated the miles he must walk before his task is completed .sx Later we have revisited the spot and counted the furrows to check our results .sx We have weighed and measured a brick , and have by practical work found out not only the number but the weight of bricks used in the building of different parts of our school walls .sx What is more to the point , this practical work has not prevented our pupils from doing quite decent work when H.M. Inspector has tested our school in arithmetic , notwithstanding the fact that his tests were such as this :sx " Multiply .sx 0001 by .sx 00001 and divide the answer by 1 .sx " Whether this type of sum or the one about the ploughman is the better " to enable the children to deal successfully with the ordinary calculations which arise in everyday life " is purely a matter of opinion .sx EDUCATION IN THE HOME .sx BY JANE FERMOR .sx Many parents seem to think that when they have .sx sent their child to a good school their responsibility in the matter of the child's education is ended .sx This attitude probably arises from our lamentable habit of trying to fit each aspect of life into a separate , watertight compartment .sx " We send the child to school to be educated , " we say , " and it is the school's business to turn out an educated boy or girl .sx " Education , however , is not a process which can be be confined to definite hours spent in a school building .sx It is impossible for any school to provide that background of culture and general knowledge which comes from living in close contact with people of wide and intelligent interests , and which makes whatever is learnt at school of so much greater value .sx So often children are not encouraged to employ their time at home in an intelligent manner .sx Parents and indeed most of us are apt to imagine that recreation must take the form of mere amusement , or even idleness , whereas what is required is a change of occupation .sx Outdoor games should , of course , play a part in the child's life , but a certain amount of time must necessarily be spent indoors , and children are never too young to begin learning to use their leisure profitably .sx It is the child with no intelligent interests , who spends its leisure roaming round the house getting in everyone's way , who grows up into the man or woman who is bored if obliged to spend an afternoon at home alone .sx Our business is to see that children have the opportunity of enjoying the right things .sx And children are much more ready to enjoy the right things than some people are apt to imagine .sx A class of unintellectual and restive children will sit spellbound while a poem is read to them by someone with a good voice and a sense of rhythm , even if the subject-matter is above their heads .sx Young children like being read to , and there is no better way of helping them to appreciate the rhythm of verse .sx The child at a boarding school is apt to fare better than the day school child in this respect , for there it is usual for house mistresses to read to the children frequently ; but in a day school there is less time for this more leisurely side of education , and the child is therefore dependent on its parents for this pleasure .sx Many parents send their children to good schools , yet do not think of providing them with suitable books for reading at home .sx Books can usually be borrowed from the school library ; nevertheless , in the holidays especially , children tend to read what-ever is in the house to lay hands on , and opportunities are undoubtedly missed if the selection of books is poor .sx Youth is certainly the time for the enjoyment of the long novels of Dickens and Scott , and if they are not read then , regret is often felt in later years .sx Then , too , the older child likes to discuss and argue with his elders .sx Many parents would be surprised if they knew what complicated problems were exercising the minds of their youthful offspring .sx Here the day school child should have the advantage , for the conversation among a herd of children in a boarding school is not generally of a very high intellectual level , but , alas !sx only too often it is the parents who prove themselves incapable of disinterested argument , and after a time the child ceases to voice its opinions in the home .sx We may not all be highly cultured , but we can all make it our business to provide a certain amount of intelligent conversation in our homes .sx Nothing is more damping to the child whose intellect is just awakening than to be continually in the company of those whose only form of conversation is gossip or the recital of domestic woes .sx If , on the other hand , the child has no intellectual interests , it will do him no harm to realise that games are not the only occupation of importance in adult life .sx One of the greatest obstacles to educational progress is the unscientific attitude of mind of the average person .sx Parents , and others , are often resigned to their own ignorance ; they are content with complacently admitting that they " don't know , " or with giving an explanation of the " they say " type of logic , when asked the reason why , for example , a poker propped up in front of a fire should make the fire burn .sx The child is a logical being with a keen curiosity , but if he is not encouraged to question statements and to find out things for himself , he will soon become infected with this " sloppy " attitude .sx An excellent game might be played by a family with a sense of fun ; whenever one of its members makes a statement which is suspected of being based upon hearsay , he should be challenged to substantiate his assertion .sx It is surprising how many people bluster and are put to confusion when asked for their reasons .sx We are all apt to make baseless assertions , but in this way we should be training both ourselves and our children in more scientific habits of thought .sx A good encyclopaedia and dictionary should always be at hand , for the pleasure of finding out things for ourselves is one that cannot be acquired too early .sx The child who comes from a reasonably cultured home where intelligent topics are discussed will have every reason to be grateful to his parents for providing him with a background of general information which has been acquired entirely without conscious toil , and which cannot but prove invaluable no matter what career is afterwards adopted .sx " EXTRANEOUS DUTIES .sx " By MICHAEL IRWIN .sx On looking up the meaning of the word extraneous in a dictionary , I was rather surprised to find that it was given as " foreign .sx .. not essential .sx " This should raise a smile on the faces of some resident teachers .sx They will surely appreciate the irony of " not essential .sx " Now what are these extraneous duties ?sx That is a question very difficult of a complete answer .sx Extraneous duties differ in every type of residential school , and even in similar types .sx Thus , supposing one takes , for example , an orphanage .sx The duties entailed in one orphanage will differ completely from those in another .sx This difference is largely due to the position , size , and object of the school .sx A school situated in the country , for instance , may require its staff to take the scholars on special expeditions .sx