The Hygiene of Instruction in Arithmetic

The problem of the proper age for beginning arithmetic is then something like this. At what age can a child be drilled in arithmetical processes without the aid of artificial devices, and the like which are likely to persist as arrests or habits of interference of association? And what age should the study of logic be begun? We have at present no adequate data for answering these questions; but until further investigations have been made, the verdict of hygiene is that ordinarily formal instruction and arithmetic should be postponed until at least the age of eight or ten. The Italian physiologist, Maso, President G. Stanley Hall, Professor Patrick, and other degree in condemning formal instruction in this subject before this age.