Arithmetic has suffered in the past, and still suffers, from being regarded as merely a tool subject, without interest or content of its own. The three R's have a very definite meaning for many an English business man of to-day, who himself had little or no schooling after the age of 14 : he requires of his would-be employees that they shall be able to read print, to write a legible hand, to add up a column of figures and make certain specialised mental calculations, chiefly concerned with our complicated monetary system.

The University Honours graduate who teaches in our Secondary Schools tacitly admits that these rudiments are necessary, but is in a hurry to turn the reading lesson into literary appreciation, writing into self-expressive composition, and arithmetic into the various branches of mathematics, or the hand-maid of science.