Matson Insurance has partnered with Jefferson County History Center to offer exploreJeffersonpa.com readers a look into Jefferson County’s past. Today, the history of “Divisors” is highlighted.
[Photo: In 1904 teacher Stella Voorhees was responsible for teaching division to a large class of fifth graders. (JCHS Collection)]
(Article submitted by Carole Briggs, Jefferson County Historical Society.)
WHAT EXACTLY IS A DIVISOR, ANYWAY?
“Four and twenty blackbirds, Baked in a pie…”
Think about the many rhymes that include that early skill of counting. Toddlers count their toes. Four-year-olds shout out, “One for the money, two for the show….” And we all sing “A Partridge in a Pear Tree” during the holidays. Learning to count, then learning to manipulate those numbers by adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing are important skills for young people to learn. However, that has not always been the case.
Once upon a time, teaching arithmetic to young children wasn’t even considered. Instead, instruction began at the age of 10 or 12. That is, until a man named Pestalozzi in the early part of the 18th century promoted teaching arithmetic to six-and-seven-year-olds. Some schools did, but many continued to wait until children were older.
So I was curious to learn how and when boys and girls in our county first used arithmetic books.
One book in our collection is a small one published by Craig & Wilson, printers whose shop was on Main Street in Brookville. The book, A Collection of Geographical, Moral, Religious and Political Chapters, was written in 1848 by teacher Joel Spyker, who taught in Rose Township. The front piece explains that the book is “designed for the use of common schools,” and it contains “Arithmetical Tables.”
Chapter VII (that’s 7, for readers who weren’t taught Roman numerals) contains 80 questions and answers related to arithmetic. Here are two: (1) What is the meaning of short division? (2) How do you prove short division? Did most of our young students use Spyker’s book? That we do not know.
Don’t despair! You will find the answers at the end of the article.
Should students spend their time on higher-level thinking about what numbers are for and about the relationships among number, quantity, measurement, etc., or spend their time on the mastery of adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing? Does it have to be an either/or decision, or are perhaps both necessary to lay the foundation for algebra and computer science?
And oh―the answers to those two problems? All require some higher-level thinking, as well as mastery of the four basic operations. Seems those early textbook writers knew all along what’s important for students to know.
(1) Short division is so called when the divisor does not exceed 12.
(2) By casting out the nines.
Copyright@Jefferson County Historical Society, Inc.
Throwback Thursday is brought to you by Matson Insurance in Brookville.
Submitted by the Jefferson County History Center.
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