Book, The Normal Elementary Arithmetic

By the mid-nineteenth century, with the expansion of public elementary schools (common schools), some reformers advocated better formal education for teachers. They noted the establishment of "Écoles normales" of normal schools in France and similar institutions in Prussia and parts of Great Britain. Philanthropic individuals, state legislatures, and teachers established a range of public and private normal schools, most of which enrolled female students. Ambitious educators found positions teaching and administering such institutions, and authoring suitable textbooks. One of them was Edward Brooks (1831-1912). Brooks had little formal education, having attended one session of Liberty Normal Institute in New York state and continued his studies briefly at the University of Northern Pennsylvania. There he quickly was made part of the faculty. From 1855 to 1883, Brooks was associated with newly established Pennsylvania State Normal School at Millersville (now Millersville University). He began as a professor and became president of the institution. At Millersville, Brooks wrote a sefies of mathematics textbooks for normal school students on such topics as arithmetic (several textbooks, from 1858), geometry (from 1865), and algebra (from 1874). He also would publish more general pedagogical works and volumes on teaching reading, elocution, and music. He also would be granted an honorary master's degree and honorary doctorates.

This particular book is the 1899 printing of the revised edition of Brooks' The Normal Elementary Arithmetic. . . . The first version of the book had appeared in 1866 and the revision is copyrighted 1888. The introduction provides suggestions for teachers. Brooks believed that study of his book would not train the pupil "to labor like a machine" but rather "teach pupils to think as well as to work problems." The volume includes an appendix on the metric system.

The book is signed in ink inside the front cover: Mary Donnelly. Unfortunately, there is no information about where she lived.

References:

"Edward Brooks," National Cyclopedia of American Biography, vol. 1, p. 423-424.

Geraldine J. Clifford, Those Good Gertrudes: A Social History of Women Teachers in America, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014, esp. 178-187.

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