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I need not say that I mean Reading, Writing, and
Calculation.

Teachers do not perhaps always consider how entirely and essentially
distinct these three branches of learning are from all the rest. They
are arts; the acquisition of them is not to be considered as knowledge,
so much as the means by which knowledge may be obtained. A child who is
studying Geography, or History, or Natural Science, is learning
_facts_--gaining information; on the other hand, the one who is learning
to write, or to read, or to calculate, may be adding little or nothing
to his stock of knowledge. He is acquiring _skill_, which, at some
future time, he may make the means of increasing his knowledge to any
extent.

This distinction ought to be kept constantly in view, and the teacher
should feel that these three fundamental branches stand by themselves,
and stand first in importance. I do not mean to undervalue the others,
but only to insist upon the superior value and importance of these.
Teaching a pupil to read before he enters upon the active business of
life is like giving a new settler an axe as he goes to seek his new home
in the forest. Teaching him a lesson in history is, on the other hand,
only cutting down a tree or two for him. A knowledge of natural history
is like a few bushels of grain gratuitously placed in his barn; but the


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