New Books

Abstract

This is the ninth Yearbook of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and if the organization had published nothing else it would by this single volume have amply justified its existence. For here is a work of such scholarship and sound judgment as to make it rank among the best that America or Europe has produced in our generation in the field of education as applied to elementary mathematics. This is high praise, but it is justified. Dr. Hamley has not merely set forth the opinions of American writers, but he has read and digested the leading authorities in this country and also in Germany, France, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Russia, and England. Furthermore, and this is of great importance, he has not been content with quoting the words of as many writers as possible. On the contrary, he has sought only the essence of the contributions of the leaders in the modern reform movement-of men who can think for themselves, and act. It is frequently, and indeed generally, the case that those who are sympathetic with the reform movement judge their contributions by the mass of undigested quotations which they try to absorb; Dr. Hamley has the rare power of selecting his intellectual food and then of digesting it.