Mathematical Treasure: Greenleaf's Common School Arithmetic

Benjamin Greenleaf (1786–1864) was an American schoolmaster. He was a native New Englander, born in New Hampshire, and a graduate of Dartmouth College. Greenleaf spent most of his career as a mathematics teacher and became a writer of textbooks. His Common School Arithmetic (1855) was an attempt to introduce new pedagogical approaches to the teaching of mathematics to young children. As explained in the book it was “an introduction to the national arithmetic on the inductive system combining the analytic and synthetic methods in which the principles of the science are fully explained and illustrated.”

Some addition exercises from Greenleaf’s book:

These images were obtained from the Joseph L. Rousseau Collection of Mathematics and Ciphering Books, Millersville University Library.

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