Lewis Carroll – mathematician and teacher of children

Abstract

It is well known that Lewis Carroll enjoyed the company of children and entertained them with fantastic stories, whilst on boating expeditions or on beaches, but his diaries also reveal that he enjoyed teaching children mathematics and other school subjects. On April 16th 1855, he recorded his concern with the education of his younger sister Louisa, who had an aptitude for mathematics: ‘Went into Darlington – bought Swale’s Chamber’s Euclid for Louisa. I had to scratch out a good deal he had interpolated, (e.g. definitions of words of his own) and put in some he had left out. An author has no right to mangle the original writer whom he employs: all additional matter should be carefully distinguished from the genuine text. N. B. Pott’s Euclid is the only edition worth getting – both Capell and Chamber’s are mangled editions.’ Three days later he recorded: ‘Advanced Louisa’s mathematics to simple Equations (third day of Algebra), and the first 12 propositions of Euclid.’ On the next day, he left his home at the rectory of Croft, and returned to Oxford for the Easter Term.