THE STONE-MILLIS ARITHMETICS ADVANCED BY JOHN C. STONE, A.M. HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS, STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, AND JAMES F. MILLIS, A.M. HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS, FRANCIS W. PARKER Educ 7 119,15810 HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY GIFT OF GINN AND COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1911, 1914, BY JOHN C. STONE AND JAMES F. MILLIS. PREFACE IN the preparation of this series of arithmetics the chief aims have been more adequately to adapt the subject matter to the experiences, interests, and immediate needs of children, and to provide means for a mastery of the formal phases of arithmetic through more scientifically organized drills. The books are based upon the principles that knowledge to be real must be founded upon the actual experiences of the individual learner; that knowledge to be retained must be given opportunity for use, the more immediately the better; and that a necessary condition for true learning is that the process be self-actuated through motive or interest. Hence, throughout the series an endeavor has been made not only to develop the principles and processes in a most economical and psychological order but to provide an adequate mental imagery as a basis for their rational understanding. In the selection of problem material the utmost care has been exercised to use only problems that deal with the experiences of children. They deal with their chief occupation play, with their constructive activities, with phases of the home and the local community life with which they come into direct contact. The problems of adult life, of interest only to adults, who have had a wider experience and in consequence interests foreign to the lives of children, have been painstakingly excluded from the lower grades. Many pages of problems are grouped to tell a story, and they teach lessons valuable in themselves. Many are based upon and portray actual facts, as given in statistics, etc. By using problems touching the actual experiences of childhood we are assured of adequate imagery in the child's mind, upon which his success in the interpretation and solution of problems most depends. Such problems also provide opportunity for the pupil's arithmetical knowledge to function through use, for they give practice in solving the very problems which children actually encounter in their activities in and out of school. Evidently such problems furnish the maximum of motive or interest, the prerequisite for self-actuated study. This feature of the StoneMillis Arithmetics manifests itself conspicuously throughout the series. The play instinct has been appealed to throughout the series, especially in the work of the primary grades. In the work of the second and third grades numerous games have been introduced that have been found, by actual use in the classrooms of many schools, to be of deep interest to children. These provide an excellent basis of problems and a means for motivated drills. Most of the commercial applications of arithmetic are foreign to the experiences of children. In order to provide in the school the experiences that are otherwise lacking, and that are necessary for the mastery of this phase of arithmetic, suggestions have been given at different points of the series showing how the business processes may be dramatized or acted out in make-believe activities in the schoolroom. Motivated drills, for the mastery of the tables and formal processes of arithmetic, have been systematically and plentifully provided throughout the books, and should prove a strong feature of the series. The game element has been |