Mathematical and cultural messages from the period between the two world wars: Elin Pelin's story problems

Abstract

In the mid-thirties of XX c. the renowned Bulgarian writer Elin Pelin published the children's newspaper Path (in Bulgarian: P''teka) regularly including mathematical story problems. Their unusual imagery and plots were quite different from textbook math problems. The leading character Old-hand Stanyo loved to tell his neighbours' children stories in which he intertwined elements of mathematics or logic. Too lengthy sometimes, the story problems revealed various sides of culture to children and taught them to pay attention to detail, think logically, and not to neglect common sense. Whatever life situations were described, the moral was always the same - the knowledge of mathematics helped overcome obstacles. Elin Pelin's newspaper was circulated all around Bulgaria inspiring children from towns big and small to learn counting, divisibility of numbers, systems of linear equations, binary number system, etc. These topics continue to be in the scope of interests of contemporary students, teachers, and mathematics educators. Story problems of Elin Pelin's series, exemplary pieces of which are analyzed in the article, attract modern readers with the unique mathematical and cultural values of their time.