Lectures on the logic of arithmetic

by Mary Everest Boole

"MY DEAR FRIEND,
But for your resolute energy I think I should never have communicated to the educational world the method which I have long used for reviving the faculties of children suffering from mathematical rickets and logical paralysis. These diseases are common; they are induced by the practice of teaching mathematical processes on a hypothesis about the nature of Mathematics directly opposed to that which underlies the original invention and formulation of these processes.
I have, as you know, taken no part in recent attempts to improve methods of teaching, because, as James Hinton said, I can see no use in trying to invent good methods for teaching truth on a basis of falsehood ; the only remedy in which I have any faith is to tell the pupil one or two simple laws of the relation of the human mind to Scientific Truth, and then to see that he forms the habit of working in accordance with those laws.
For nearly forty years, authorities of various kinds have been assuring me that it would be impossible to do this except in individual cases ; that the public will not tolerate being shown the glowing heart of the mathematical discoverer, will not dare to let itself know to what virgin inspiration it is paying homage when it confers medals and honours(...)"

148 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1903

About the author

Mary Everest Boole (11 March 1832 in Wickwar, Gloucestershire – 17 May 1916 in Middlesex, England) was a self-taught mathematician who is best known as an author of didactic works on mathematics, such as Philosophy and Fun of Algebra, and as the wife of fellow mathematician George Boole. Her progressive ideas on education, as expounded in The Preparation of the Child for Science, included encouraging children to explore mathematics through playful activities such as curve stitching. Her life is of interest to feminists as an example of how women made careers in an academic system that did not welcome them.