852 SCHOOL SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

IS MATHEMATICS JUST HARD SENSE?BY LOUISE M. ESSEX,

Long Beach, Calif.In one of Booth Tarkington^s short stories, ^Beasley^s Christ-

mas Party," I found this conversation:^Did you know Miss Ann Apperwaite was a teacher of mathe-

matics?"^Yes," said Mrs. Simeon Peck wisely, (t! always thought that

explained it; the romance is a reaction from the algebra. I neverknew a person connected with mathematics or astronomy orstatistics or any of those exact things who didn^t have a crazystreak in ^em somewhere. They^ve got to blow off steam andbe foolish to make up for putting in so much of their time athard sense."The thought came to me�Is mathematics just hard sense?

Cannot one find in the subject adventure, romance and a suit-able occasion for the play of the imagination? How could theancient Greeks have taken such a delight in mathematics? WasGreece a nation with all of its love for beauty in art and poetry,and its enthusiasm for games and sports to be satisfied with justhard sense?The ancient Greeks seemed to love all of the things that youth

demands. Edgar James Swift in his book of Youth and Race,says, The young boy and girl will be active, they insist uponadventures, and they are bound to show off."Do algebra and geometry have the capacity to give to the

youth what he demands? Like savages, children are both readilyentertained and easily bored. Life must be spirited or they willbreak its bonds and find their own adventures. We know thatadventures need not be spectacular to meet the requirements;the imagination, which is such a dominant factor in youth, helpssolve the problem amazingly.An assignment to search through the parks, or the theaters,

or churches, or the dress shops to find the number of placesgeometric figures are used within their premises will furnishenough adventure for any live American youth.

It may not be as exciting as duck hunting or football, butthere is novelty in the adventure.The young girl and boy are suddenly overwhelmed with the

fact that they are in a world of geometric figures. One findsnature itself made up of geometric design. What would thearchitect, the artist or the designer do without geometry?

AS MATHEMATICS HARD SENSE? 853

There is always an unexpected aliveness in an abrupt awaken-ing, and the boys and girls feel this when they suddenly realizethat they are surrounded by squares, triangles, spheres, andcircles.When the new Orpheum Theatre opened its doors, Omaha

was delighted with the beautiful’new building. My geometrystudents were greatly pleased to report to the class the resultsof their exploration of the building. James had discovered moregeometric figures than John, hence he was the one to receive thegreatest recognition.The same spirit of adventure and the same innate love to show

off manifested themselves in the search through the buildingsof Omaha as in the attempts to fly across the Atlantic�it is thespirit of youth.The girls thrill over the attendance at style shows and the

discovery of geometric figures used in costumes. The quaintnessof a search in quarters dear to every girVs heart makes a satis-factory appeal.

I find I get the best results by having these reports written.It makes a more definite assignment. Moreover, men andwomen usually make official reports of their important adven-tures. Didn^t Lindbergh write a book?

However, with only an appreciation of geometric figures whichfurnishes all possible play to the imagination, one would notnecessarily be a creditable student of geometry. The youthmust be taught to reason and reason logically.Can we find a place in the world of pleasure and entertainment

wher^ this same reasoning is used�a place outside of the worldof cold facts?Robert Barr, in the Bookman, March, 1897, says about the

plot of the short story:^My model is Euclid, whose justly celebrated book of short

stories, entitled ^The Elements of Geometry/ will live whenmost of us who are scribbling today are forgotten. Euclid laysdown his plot, sets instantly to work at its development, lettingno incident creep in that does not bear relation to the climax,using no unnecessary words, always keeping his one end in view,and the moment he reaches the culmination he stops.As all boys revel over detective stories, stories of exception-

ally well constructed plots, can they not be made to realize thatthe same reasoning is used in proving geometric theorems as intheir intriguing detective stories?

854 SCHOOL SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

We will now turn our attention to algebra. Can the youthbe made to feel that it has the warmth and charm of pulsatinglife?We often hear about the boy of today. He neither respects

nor obeys. He is growing up without any respect for law orfeeling of responsibility or you may have heard it stated in thismanner: Disregard for law is fast becoming an Americancharacteristic.

Let us take the simple equation in algebra. The youth,through carelessness or ignorance, adds something to one sideof the equation and not to the other side. He goes through thesolution of the problem. What happens? He gets the incorrectresult; the problem will not check.He has disobeyed a law, either through lack of concentration

or ignorance; the reason is of no concern, but the fact remainsthat he has failed to obtain the correct result.

All of this happens before his very eyes, and the significanceof the law can be easily felt.

Is not all of life made up of laws�physical laws, moral laws,and spiritual laws?The laws of the universe are there for us to use�we fail either

through carelessness or ignorance but again the reason for ourfailure is of no importance.

Is there any place where the young people of today, throughsubtle and tactful suggestion, can be made to feel more keenlythe unconquerable, powerful force of law in life than in algebra?

Short speed tests in the fundamentals of algebra add zest tothe course and will always bring enthusiasm and close concen-tration; especially in a class composed of boys. Boys love gamesand they show the same degree ot interest in a competitive speedtest in algebra as in a game of checkers or chess.Booth Tarkington has said what so many think�they think

it probably because Booth Tarkingtons have said it, but the factis that mathematics furnishes plenty of adventure and play forthe imagination to satisfy any youth; at the same time it isteaching them the principles of logical reasoning and still moreimportant perhaps�an awed respect for law.Does any other subject furnish more of the requirements of

youth or of life itself?Mathematics trains for sane, well balanced citizenship, and

can we ask more of any experience in life?