The In-Service Training in Mathematics of Montgomery County, Maryland, Elementary School Teachers

One hundred years ago arithmetic in the common schools was to a large extent mental gymnastics. Even as late as 1874, at a convention of the National Education Association, a Boston principal spoke on the "melancholy fact" that "the study of arithmetic now means the committing to memory of a succession of rules for performing arbitrary processes, unconnected with each other, or with any rational principles."In recent times, and even in many cases today, pupils are still taught meaningless arithmetic.