The three Rs

The three Rs are three basic skills taught in schools: reading, writing and arithmetic (the "R 's", pronounced in the English alphabet "ARs", refer to "Reading, wRiting (where the W is unnecessary), and ARithmetic"). The phrase appears to have been coined at the beginning of the 19th century.

The term has also been used to name other triples (see Other uses).

Origin and meaning
The skills themselves are alluded to in St. Augustine's Confessions: ...legere et scribere et numerare discitur 'learning to read, and write, and do arithmetic'.

The phrase is sometimes attributed to a speech given by Sir William Curtis circa 1807: this is disputed. An extended modern version of the three Rs consists of the "functional skills of literacy, numeracy and ICT".

The educationalist Louis P. Bénézet preferred "to read", "to reason", "to recite", adding, "by reciting I did not mean giving back, verbatim, the words of the teacher or of the textbook. I meant speaking the English language."

Other uses
More recent meanings of "the three Rs" are:
 * In the subject of CNC code generation by Edgecam Workflow: Rapid, Reliable, and Repeatable
 * In the subject of sustainability: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle
 * In the subject of American politics and the New Deal: Relief, Recovery, and Reform
 * In animal welfare principles in research (see The Three Rs for animals). The Three Rs principle stands for Reduction, Refinement, and Replacement. It promotes the use of alternative methods whenever possible, reducing the number of animals used, refining the experimental techniques to minimize harm, and replacing animals with non-animal models when feasible


 * (See also 3R disambiguation)