expect him to do so? And the thing to do now is obviously to discover
or create these books, and force them kindly but firmly into the
teachers' hands.

The problem is much simpler in the case of mathematical teaching than
in the case of English, because the educational theory and method have
been more thoroughly discussed. There is no need for the ten years of
experiment and trial I have suggested for the organization of English
teaching. The mathematical reformer may begin now at a point the
English language reformer will not reach for some years. Suppose now a
suitably authenticated committee were to work out--on the basis of
Professor Perry's syllabus perhaps--a syllabus of school mathematics,
and then make a thorough review of all the mathematical textbooks on
sale throughout the English-speaking world, admitting some perhaps as
of real permanent value for teaching of the new type, provisionally
recognizing others as endurable, but with clear recommendations for
their revision and improvement, and condemning the others specifically
_by name_. Let them make it clear that this syllabus and report
will be respected by all public examining bodies; let them spend a
hundred pounds or so in the intelligent distribution of their report,
and the scholastic profession will not be long before it is equipped
with the recommended books. Meanwhile, the English and American
scholastic publishers will become extremely active, the warned books
will be revised, and new books will be written in competition for the
enormous prize of the committee's final approval, an activity that a
second review, after an interval of five or six years, will recognize
and reward.

Such measures as these will be worth reams of essays in educational
papers and Parents' Reviews, worth thousands of inspiring and