In every common school, the course of study to be pursued must necessarily embrace reading, writing, and arithmetic. These are the first rudiments of education ; and to instruct in them is the peculiar province of a common school, and the first object of its institution. Where any of these elementary parts of education cannot be taught, from inability in the teacher to instruct in them, or where any of them are excluded from an idea of their unimportance ; the primary requisites of a common school are wanting ; and the privileges of such a school, contemplated by the school act, cannot be claimed nor ought they to be enjoyed. Reading, writing, and arithmetic, as they are the means of acquiring education, which, like the necessaries of life, are first to be secured.