Mathematics‐‐algebra, geometry, and the more advanced kinds of arithmetic‐‐will now enter into thesyllabus and take its place as what it really is: not a separate "subject" but a sub‐department of Logic.It is neither more nor less than the rule of the syllogism in its particular application to number andmeasurement, and should be taught as such, instead of being, for some, a dark mystery, and, forothers, a special revelation, neither illuminating nor illuminated by any other part of knowledge.History, aided by a simple system of ethics derived from the grammar of theology, will provide muchsuitable material for discussion: Was the behavior of this statesman justified? What was the effect ofsuch an enactment? What are the arguments for and against this or that form of government? Weshall thus get an introduction to constitutional history‐‐a subject meaningless to the young child, butof absorbing interest to those who are prepared to argue and debate. Theology itself will furnishmaterial for argument about conduct and morals; and should have its scope extended by a simplifiedcourse of dogmatic theology (i.e., the rational structure of Christian thought), clarifying the relationsbetween the dogma and the ethics, and lending itself to that application of ethical principles inparticular instances which is properly called casuistry. Geography and the Sciences will likewiseprovide material for Dialectic.But above all, we must not neglect the material which is so abundant in the pupils' own daily life.There is a delightful passage in Leslie Paul's "The Living Hedge" which tells how a number of small boysenjoyed themselves for days arguing about an extraordinary shower of rain which had fallen in theirtown‐‐a shower so localized that it left one half of the main street wet and the other dry. Could one,they argued, properly say that it had rained that day on or over the town or only in the town? Howmany drops of water were required to constitute rain? And so on. Argument about this led on to ahost of similar problems about rest and motion, sleep and waking, est and non est, and theinfinitesimal division of time. The whole passage is an admirable example of the spontaneousdevelopment of the ratiocinative faculty and the natural and proper thirst of the awakening reason forthe definition of terms and exactness of statement. All events are food for such an appetite.An umpire's decision; the degree to which one may transgress the spirit of a regulation without being10
trapped by the letter: on such questions as these, children are born casuists, and their naturalpropensity only needs to be developed and trained‐‐and especially, brought into an intelligiblerelationship with the events in the grown‐up world. The newspapers are full of good material for suchexercises: legal decisions, on the one hand, in cases where the cause at issue is not too abstruse; onthe other, fallacious reasoning and muddleheaded arguments, with which the correspondence
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