Pennsylvania USGenWeb Archives

 

The City of DuBois

by

William C. Pentz

 

DuBois

Press of Gray Printing Co.

1932

 

 

Digitized and transcribed for the Clearfield County PA USGenWeb by

Ellis Michaels

 

Copyright

This page was last updated on 02 Jan 2014

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The City of DuBois

Chapter 13

Page 062

 

 

Page 62 EARLY SCHOOLS

     The curriculum of these early schools was very limited and usually confined to the three R's. The pupil in arithmetic did not go much beyond addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The pupil who could solve problems in fractions was considered brilliant, and one who could work all the problems in the arithmetic was very highly educated.

     If you were to ask a modern pupil what was meant by "The Rule of Three", or "Tare and Tret", he would stare at you and wonder if you were mentally balanced, but these terms were familiar at the time.

     Arithmetic was divided into two classes, written and mental. The mental exercises were very elaborate, and commenced with simple addition, running through the four principles of arithmetic, and then took up fractions and problems of great length, which the pupil, standing in his place in the class, was compelled to solve without the aid of pencil or blackboard.

     As an example of the problems that were to be solved by the process of mental arithmetic, we give the following;

     "If the head of a fish is ten inches long, and the tail is as long as the head plus one-half the body and the body is as long as the head and tail both; Required, the length of the fish."

     "A person has two silver cups and only one cover for both. The first cup weighs twelve ounces. If the first cup be covered, it will weigh twice as much as the second, but if the second cup be covered, it will weigh three times as much as the first; Required, the weight of the second cup and cover."

      The early school term was only three months; finally increased to four, and then to five months, where it remained for many years. If any one wanted additional education, he was compelled to earn money enough to take him to some of the academies scattered, through the state, and he might finally land in college. Of course, if the young man went to college, he then would become a minister lawyer or doctor. Girls as a rule did not go beyond the common schools.
 

 

 

 

 

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