Page 332 - The Story of My Lif

She has made considerable progress in the study of arithmetic.

She readily explains the processes of multiplication, addition, subtraction, and
division, and seems to understand the operations. She has nearly finished
Colburn’s mental arithmetic, her last work being in improper fractions. She has
also done some good work in written arithmetic. Her mind works so rapidly, that
it often happens, that when I give her an example she will give me the correct

answer before I have time to write out the question. She pays little attention to
the language used in stating a problem, and seldom stops to ask the meaning of
unknown words or phrases until she is ready to explain her work. Once, when a
question puzzled her very much, I suggested that we take a walk and then
perhaps she would understand it. She shook her head decidedly, and said: “My
enemies would think I was running away.

I must stay and conquer them now,” and she did.

The intellectual improvement which Helen has made in the past two years is

shown more clearly in her greater command of language and in her ability to
recognize nicer shades of meaning in the use of words, than in any other branch
of her education.

Not a day passes that she does not learn many new words, nor are these merely

the names of tangible and sensible objects. For instance, she one day wished to
know the meaning of the following words: PHENOMENON, COMPRISE,
ENERGY, REPRODUCTION, EXTRAORDINARY, PERPETUAL and
MYSTERY. Some of these words have successive steps of meaning, beginning
with what is simple and leading on to what is abstract. It would have been a
hopeless task to make Helen comprehend the more abstruse meanings of the
word MYSTERY, but she understood readily that it signified something hidden
or concealed, and when she makes greater progress she will grasp its more
abstruse meaning as easily as she now does the simpler signification. In
investigating any subject there must occur at the beginning words and phrases
which cannot be adequately understood until the pupil has made considerable
advancement; yet I have thought it best to go on giving my pupil simple