ABSTRACT
Behind these rival motives stands the deeper question as to whether either the trader or the engineer has been wise in attempting to impose his specific demands upon the school children; whether pleas for the study of number and form cannot be advanced more in accord with the actual needs of child-nature as manifested here and now by the child himself. The educational reformer of the present day holds that mathematics is needed by the child and will be welcomed by him when brought into the range of his daily experience : when thus enjoyed and exercised it becomes an effective instrument which can be adapted at will to the requirements
either of the counting-house or the machine-shop. It was, however, only a few who in those days thought so far ahead of their times: even now the public mind is far from appreciating the worth of any general principles of child, development
which can be trusted to guide the educator in nourishing the intelligence and emotions of the young. We shall return to these themes in Chapters VIII and IX and examine further developments of the economic and social order as we pass onward to the present day.
