The Teaching of Arithmetic

The ordinary purchase of household supplies requires a practical ability in the mental arithmetic of daily life, and this ability comes to the mind only through repeated exercise. As will be seen later, it is a fair inference from statistical investigations that a person may be rapid and accurate in written work but slow and uncertain in oral solutions. Therefore, it will not do, from the practical standpoint, to drill children only in written arithmetic if we expect them to be reasonably ready in purely mental work.