Elementary School Mathematics

Abstract

IN connection with the present discussion on the teaching of elementary mathematics in schools, and the recommendation made by many experienced teachers that much use should be made in geometry—at any rate in the earlier stages of actual measurements of lengths of lines, may I suggest that such measurements should always be made in centimetres? A handy steel rule, six inches long, graduated both in inches and tenths, and in centimetres and millimetres, can be bought for a few pence, and is easily carried in that almost omnivorous receptacle—the pocket of a schoolboy. The use of such a rule would beget familiarity with the metric scale, in itself an advantage for any boy whose education includes some knowledge of elementary physics. But more—the schools of the country would soon be sending out each year a body of educated men acquainted more or less with the advantages of the metric system, and their influence can scarcely fail to be helpful in hastening the general adoption of the metric system—a change so much to be desired both in education and in practical life.