answersLogoWhite

0

reading,

riting, and

rithmatic.

Wikipedia says the phrase was first used by Sir Wiilliam Curtis in a speech C 1825.

However, in my bound volume of The Lady's Magazine for 1818 there is this nice space-filler:

"At a public dinner for the benefit of the various schools instituted for the instruction of the lower orders, several toasts were given applicable to the occasion. Some one proposed the three P's, "Peace, Plenty and prosperity". A plain-dealing man, however, thought this last pledge inapplicable to the present meeting and, conscious of the value of education by the want of it himnself, declared he could find a more appropriate one, and gave the following; "The three R's, Reading Writing amd 'rithmetic!"

User Avatar

Wiki User

15y ago

What else can I help you with?