Arithmetic in Teacher Training

Abstract

Except for the fact that arithmetic is a subject for study in all or nearly all of our elementary schools we perhaps would not be spending any of our valuable time in the teacher training institutions in preparing the neophyte teachers for the rather serious task of teaching arithmetic. Isn't it curious that arithmetic is being taught so prominently in our elementary levels of instruction? Have not we all heard reformers say that all the arithmetic needed by the average citizen can be learned in six months? Why then do we spend eleven and six-tenths per cent of the school time in grades one to six in the study of arithmetic? 1 The writer does not wish to enter fully into the arguments of this controversial question but in order to give an historical setting for the material which will be presented later, it seems wise to point out at this time that arithmetic was once considered too vulgar to be included in the elementary school curriculum. A fuller discussion of the beginnings of arithmetic as a school subject would show how our term arithmetic gradually came to include both ancient arithmetic (theoretical work with numbers) and logistic (practical calculation) and how for a long time the schools of non-commercial Europe looked at this study as one to be pursued by only that menial class of people who stooped so low as to gain a living through barter and commerce. Also an historical consideration would show how arithmetic grew in prominence and importance as the industrial revolution began to peacefully transform the point of view of the Western world from which we have taken our heritage of social institutions as well as of our physical beings.