SIR,—The correspondence provoked by Mr. D. Willott prompts me to
recount a story heard recently in a railway train. A father, finding his small son making very heavy weather with his arithmetic homework, discovered that the boy had not grasped the principles involved. The father spent some time explaining these and then left the boy to do his homework. As a result the boy had no real difficulty, having for the first time mastered the rudiments of the subject.
Some weeks later the father met the schoolmaster responsible for teaching,his son arithmetic. The master asked if the father had been helping his son with his homework and was told that assistance had been limited to explaining the methods and purpose involved, not to doing the homework. " I thought so," said the schoolmaster. " The boy's work has greatly improved. But I wish you would stop doing so ; it isn't fair to the boys whose parents can't or don't help their children." I do not know whether the story is true, although the traveller who told it declared it was and mentioned the town where it occurred. My purpose in recounting it is merely to call attention to a widespread attitude which would level down to mediocrity and limit the rewards of effort to the rewards of those content to do no more than sufficient " to get by." It should not be necessary to add that teachers are probably less prone to this attitude than certain other sections of the community.
Previous page
