Methods of Learning Geometrical Theorems

Extract

FIRST of all I should like to say that I am not responsible for the subject of this paper. Some member of the Association proposed that a discussion should be held on this subject and the Committee that arranges the programme for this meeting asked me to read a paper.

This Association was founded a little over sixty years ago, mainly by schoolmasters, and its main object was to advance mathematical knowledge by improving the teaching of mathematics in schools, so that I am only too glad to welcome any discussion on actual school work, and I hope that what I have to say may provoke a discussion to which many of you will contribute.

After promising to read the paper I sat down to consider what ground it should cover. It seems to me that the subject covers nearly the whole ground of geometry teaching up to the School Certificate stage, so the subject is wide.

It will not be uninteresting to look at the past for a few minutes. I started teaching in the last century, and there was much teaching at that time that had made little advance since the date of the foundation of the A.I.G.T. But for a moment I will go back still earlier and tell you two stories of the middle of the last century