Economies in Algebra

Abstract

Ours is an age of economy in production. Especially since the days of Adam Smith the attention of the world has been centered on learning how to do things with the least waste and expense, and most effectively. In our own times we have seen developed and managed with marvelous economy numerous lines of business. The same tendency, as might be expected, is seen also in education. Perhaps the greatest economy in education is secured by the requirement of special training before allowing beginners to teach. Those persons not qualified by natural or acquired ability are thus weeded out by the training school, and those who are qualified are enabled to begin far in advance of the old standard of accomplishment. Another economy consists in applying the idea of specialization whereby the schools are graded and individual teachers have charge of single grades, thus dividing the labor much as it is divided in a modern manufacturing plant. Now, while it is true that great progress has been made in applying economical methods in educational work, it is doubtless also true that much of current educational effort is enormously wasteful for the teacher and the pupil. The crowding of the pupils, as regards the number of studies and the character of the work required, has come to be a byword, and the results obtained are far from commensurate with the efforts put forth. Such crowding is commonly sadly wasteful both of the nervous energy and of the intellectual power of all concerned in it. Not only is there charge of overcrowding the pupils, but the same charge is made from time to time of overcrowding the teachers also. The poorly paid teacher must put in her full time in the schoolroom, and then must add to this labor long periods spent in correcting papers at home or out of school hours. In more than one school the conscientious teacher works Saturdays and Sundays to keep from being swamped with written work. The