The family reunion last week was an enjoyable Sunday. Seeing my cousins is always a treat—especially since I see some of them only once a year at this event. My cousin Lori wanted everyone to tell a story about our grandmother and we each recounted a fond memory of her. The older cousins, me included, remember her old house; while the younger ones remember the home she moved into in 1974 when the old house was taken by the city to build the new city hall parking lot. I remembered walking the 2 blocks from my grade school to have lunch with her and my great aunt from time to time. I also remembered watching the yearly Christmas Parade that went past her home from the comfort of her front porch. My uncle, her youngest child, remembered sitting around her kitchen table with his friends when he was in high school eating pasta. His friends loved to visit because my grandmother would always feed whoever showed up. My cousin Kathy remembers how dark and scary her basement was, while my cousin Michael, the problem child, remembered how he would try her patients with his child-like mischief.

One of the things I look for when my wife and I shop antique stores and estate sales are old math and science books. My uncle knows this, and when he runs across one he usually picks it up for me. On this day he presented me with three finds that turned up at an estate sale. They were purchased for a total of $1.50.

One, “Primary Arithmetic” published in 1902, was intended to be used, in the words of the author,“ by boys and girls who know the numbers from one to ten thoroughly.” The two year program was based on the belief that students should learn by reading about a topic. The preface contains the following quote from an address to the National Association of Education in 1896 by W.T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Education.
“If a child learns how to use the text-book, he learns how to make use of the experience of mankind. The text book enables the child to do individual work for himself, and helps him to become independent of oral teaching.”

In my mind, this is probably the most important concept in education ever proposed. As my former high school English teacher and a retired colleague told me a long time ago, “The word education comes from the Latin root ‘educo,’ which means ‘to draw out from’ not to pour into!”

In another of the books titled “Graded Work in Arithmetic—Eighth Year” published in 1902, the author outlines a set of 91 lessons for the 8th grade student to master. I found the following problem in lesson 6;
A dealer bought a lot of tinware for 19/16th of its value, and sold it for 11/12th of its value. If his loss was $32.50, how much did he pay for it?
The correct answer is $142.50. I am planning on giving this problem to my advanced placement chemistry students to see how they do on it. My guess is that almost none of them will be able to solve it correctly. Email me if you want to know how to solve the problem.

The last of the books was titled “Manu-Mental” Computations, published in 1904. The author is Woodford D. Anderson who was a professor at Missouri Wesleyan College and the University of South Dakota. One of the most interesting things about this book is that it was autographed by the author on the inside front cover with a note of appreciation to one of his professors. I haven’t yet figured out what the process is all about, but it has something to do with multiplying and dividing using the joints of the fingers and the positions of the tips of the fingers. When I get some spare time I plan to read the book (94 pages) and figure it out.