What the Schools Teach and Might Teach - John Franklin Bobbitt

MATHEMATICS

To arithmetic, the Cleveland schools are devoting a somewhat larger proportion
of time than the average of cities.

    TABLE   7.—TIME GIVEN   TO  ARITHMETIC

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                                                |   Hours   per year    |   Per cent    of  grade   time|

                Grade   |———————————————————————-

                                                |   Cleveland   |   50  cities| Cleveland   |   50  cities  |

    —————————————————————————————-

                    1    |   38  |   60  |  5.2 |   6.9 |

                    2    |   136     |   96  |  15.5    |   10.7    |

                    3    |   142     |   131     |  16.3    |   14.4    |

                    4    |   152     |   149     |  17.2    |   15.4    |

                    5    |   142     |   144     |  17.1    |   14.9    |

                    6    |   155     |   146     |  17.5    |   15.0    |

                    7    |   142     |   140     |  16.1    |   14.4    |

                    8    |   158     |   142     |  17.9    |   14.1    |

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            Total   |    1065    |   1008    |  15.5    |   13.3    |

    —————————————————————————————-

That everybody should be well grounded in the fundamental operations of
arithmetic is so obvious as to require no discussion. Beyond this point, however,
difficult problems arise. The probabilities are that the social and vocational
conditions of the coming generation will require that everybody be more
mathematical-minded than at present.

The content of mathematics courses is to be determined by human needs. One of