Historical development of methods in arithmetic in American elementary schools

American educational literature has contained much discussion of the failure of pupils to know arithmetic and to be able to apply arithmetical skills and knowledge. Arithmetic, as a subject, has, for many years, been the cause of more failures than any other subject in the elementary school. Many adults have been unable to do relatively simple computation, while some who could compute with reasonable facility and rapidity did not have an understanding and could not make application of mathematical skills or knowledge. Such results have caused much discussion, much of which has become criticism. In many cases, the criticism has been that the poor results have been caused by the methods of teaching the subject. Since 1940, this criticism has been intensified as deficiencies in mathematical knowledge, and especially in arithmetic, were revealed by Army and Navy tests. Men tested with respect to their ability to do simple arithmetical problems rated far below what was expected of them. Many students of the teaching of arithmetic think that changes must he made, that better methods for teaching the subject must be found and adopted, and that the results of the arithmetic teaching must show functional competence in arithmetic in the modern affairs of daily life. It was thought that a systematic, historical study of the methods which have been used in the teaching of arithmetic in our country, and an evaluation of the results of such methods as shown by the writings of the contemporaries for each period studied, would be of real value in planning for an improvement of the methods of teaching the subject in the future. With such purpose in mind the present study was undertakenEducatio