Out of yesterday: A playlet for sixth grade

Out of yesterday: A playlet for sixth gradeAuthor(s): BETTY BAKERSource: The Arithmetic Teacher, Vol. 10, No. 3 (March 1963), pp. 143-151Published by: National Council of Teachers of MathematicsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41186728 .

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In the classroom Edwina Deans

Out of yesterday

A playlet for sixth grade

BETTY BAKER Elmira, New York

Editor's Note

These two plays were written by teachers and produced by children in the upper elementary grades. Undoubtedly the partici- pants and their audiences were stimulated to learn about the history of numbers and to gain appreciation for the mathematical culture of the past. There was an opportunity for children to begin to understand how number systems such as the ones we com- monly use today have evolved and expanded as demands increased.

Many teachers encourage children to create the plot, the characters, and the lines for a play or story poem. The content is often drawn from mathematics and social studies. All of the language arts areas are involved as information is gathered, com- municated to others, and evaluated. The elementary school provides a unique setting for integrating certain phases of several sub- jects into a unified experience.

* * *

Act I

setting: The patio of the home of Jeffrey Lord. Summer furniture is scattered about. A low brick wall forms one end of the terrace, right stage. The entrance door is rear left. A phone is on the table.

characters: Mr. and Mrs. Lord. Their only son, Jeffrey, Jr. His chum from next door, Len Hathaway.

(The stage is empty as the curtain goes up The phone starts to ring. Young Jeffrey dashes in from left stage, grabs the phone.) Jeff: Hello . . . Hi-ya, Len . . . When?

Tonight? ... I can't ... no ... NO . . . I'm going to study . . . You heard me ... S-T-U-D-Y . . . Work on Tim's go-kart? . . . Maybe tomorrow?

Mrs. Lord (entering left stage, places bucket of Cokes on the table) : Jeff, your father wants the line kept clear . . .

Jeff (nodding to her) : O.K., Len. I'll see you later . . . What? . . . Yeah. Dad says I have to get better marks. (Hangs up and turns to his mother) : There must be an easier way to get through school than studying about the Egyptians. Mrs. Warren is "way-out-there" when it comes to history and math, but I bet she doesn't even know what a go-kart is.

Mrs. Lord : What does a go-kart have to do with Egypt?

Jeff (good-naturedly): That's my Mom. The gang's going over to Tim's to see his go-kart. And that's where I'd be if . . .

Mrs. Lord : If ... Jeff, your father makes his money on machine parts, and when the time comes he'll see to it that . . .

Mr. Lord (entering without their seeing him) : I'll do what?

Mrs. Lord: Nothing, dear. We're going over to the Hatha ways' to play bridge. Jeff is staying here to study.

March 1968 143



Mr. Lord: Whaťs on your study list, Son?

Jeff: Well, Dad, I'll never catch up on the Space Age. Mrs. Warren is "way- out" - but in reverse. She gets all revved up about the land of sunshine and camels.

Mr. Lord: Mrs. Warren isn't way out anywhere. I just saw her in the drug- store.

Jeff (laughing): You win, Dad. Mrs. Warren is a very-well-informed school teacher, and I shall listen to her pearls of wisdom.

Mr. Lord (severely): You'll have to do more than listen. I gained the impres- sion that you're dreaming in school.

Jeff (hopefully) : Von Braun dreamed . . . Marconi dreamed . . . even Newton dreamed . . .

Mr. Lord (still rather severely): So far you're no Von Braun ... or Mar- coni ... or anyone but Jeffrey Lord, student. They didn't just dream, lad. They were do-ers.

Mrs. Lord (tactfully) : There's a time for both. What Mrs. Warren means, Jeff, is that to appreciate history you have to have empathy.

Mr. Lord and Jeff (staring at her): Empathy?

Mrs. Lord: Mrs. Warren's ancient Egyp- tians aren't as dusty as Jeff thinks. My word is empathy. If you can put your- self in the ancient Egyptians' time and place, and try to think as they did, why then you'll see that they were flesh and blood, that they worked for food and shelter and for their families as we modern Americans do. Then you'll see that they're no longer "ancient." They're part of man's progress on earth.

Mr. Lord: Sarah, just what has that got to do with empathy? (Len Hathaway has come in, over the wall of the patio. He motions to Jeff, who in turn motions him to listen.)

Mrs. Lord: Honey, I'm just trying to tell Jeff to try to enter into the minds

and spirits of the people they're studying about. He won't be bored, he'll be fascinated.

Mr. Lord: You remind me of the speaker we heard at the Rotary. Public rela- tions chap from one of the big airlines. He'd traveled all over the world. His theme was that people should emphasize similarities, not differences, in races and nationalities. He'd found that people everywhere want food, shelter, love, and faith.

Jeff: How about fun? Dad, may I ... Mr. Lord (seeing Len): Hello, Len. No,

Jeff, you may not. Your grades are important, but most of all, you must realize that men of vision - your space heroes included - look ahead because they looked back.

Jeff: Dad, what does knowing about people writing in stone have to do with getting people to the moon?

Mr. Lord: The wisdom of today is the result of the sum total of man's efforts through the ages to understand himself and the world about him. That in- cludes outer space. We forge ahead today because some boy of yesterday who studied, grew up and got a new idea.

Jeff: Yes, sir. I'm sorry. I'll give it everything I've got. Len, if you don't want to stay here, tell the gang I'll see them tomorrow.

Len (taking the Coke bottle Mrs. Lord offers him) : Thank you, Mrs. Lord. Need any help, Jeff? (Mr. and Mrs. Lord wave to the boys as they go out, left stage.)

Jeff: (propping himself against the brick wall of the patio, finishing his Coke, leaf- ing through his books) : No, thanks, pal. (Yawning.) I have to read this stuff about Egypt.

Len: The exam's tomorrow. (Setting the bottle on the table.) See you in dream- land . . . (Vaults the wall, exits right.)

Jeff (lying on his side, book propped in front of him): Now, let's see. Page 231. "Egypt- Cradle of Civilization." (He

144 The Arithmetic Teacher



props himself with his head against the brick wall.) My, I AM sleepy . . . (The book slowly slips out of his hand, as he falls sound asleep.)

CURTAIN

Act II setting: Garden of Pharaoh, suggestive of

ancient times. (This can be as simple or as elaborate as one wishes to make it. See the Production Notes listed on last page.) Path leading to part of boat-landing visible at the extreme right of stage. Entrance to garden at left.

characters: Jeff, dressed in ancient Egyptian costume. Len, dressed in sim- ilar fashion. Ra-Mu-En, son of Pharaoh. Princess, daughter of Pharaoh. Priest, instructor of Pharaoh's children.

Jeff (Asleep against stone. Stretches, rubs his neck, stares about.) : Golly! Where am I? (Sees Len, sleeping on his side, not far away.) Len! Len! Wake up! (Shak- ing his arm.) Len!

Len (muttering): Lemme sleep. (Stretch- ing.) Ho-hum, but I'm stiff. (Sitting bolt upright, and pointing off-stage.) Jeff, look! There are the Pyramids over there. I must be nuts. (Rubbing his eyes and staring.)

Jeff: I'll say you're nuts. Dig those crazy clothes you're wearing.

Len: MY crazy clothes? Look at your own. (The two boys move around each other, staring.) At least we can wash in the river. It must be the Nile.

Son of Pharaoh (entering from left) : Are you the sons of my boatman? (Jeff and Len stare, shake their heads.)

Son of Pharaoh: Then what are you doing in Pharaoh's garden?

Len (to Jeff, stage-whispering) : He speaks English]

Jeff (to Len): We're dreaming. So he speaks English.

Son of Pharaoh: Come, come! Can't you speak? There is nothing here to frighten you.

Jeff (gathering courage): We're from

America, but we don't quite know how we got here. I am the son of Jeffrey Lord and this is my friend, Len Hathaway.

Son of Pharaoh (puzzled) : America? Of this I do not know. I must speak with my esteemed father.

Jeff: Please, wait. Don't go. Everything is so strange. Won't you please tell us where we are?

Son of Pharaoh: I have told you. You are in Pharaoh's garden. I am Ra-Mu-En, oldest son of the mighty King. The priest, my instructor, comes at any moment, as I am to pursue my study of numbers here on the terrace today.

Len : First let us tell you that we wish to know more of your country. (Poking Jeff, and stage-whispering, aside.) Let's stall for time. We can think our way out of this predicament.

Jeff (to Ra-Mu-En) : We can't help but wonder about your lessons. Do you know how those pyramids were built?

Ra-Mu-En: The Pyramids? They have been standing there many years, built by illustrious leaders of long ago. They measure 500 cubits on each side, and the perimeter measures 2000 cubits, or § a meridian mile.

Jeff: But what is a cubit? Ra-Mu-En (stretching out his hand, point-

ing with the other) : It's the distance from the end of my elbow to the tip of my middle finger.

Jeff: I read about that, Len. It's about 18 to 19 inches.

Ra-Mu-En (puzzled) : Inches? Jeff: That's a measurement we use in

our country. (Holding up his hand.) King David of Scotland ruled that an inch should measure from the end of the thumb to the root of the nail. (Points to his own thumb.)

Ra-Mu-En (haughtily) : I know naught of this king of whom you speak.

Jeff (hastily): But of course, Honored One. You were speaking of mathematics.

Ra-Mu-En : It is our priests who have the leisure for this study. They can tell you the secrets of the Pyramids.

March 1963 145



Jeff: Perhaps we will be permitted to meet one of your priests. I once sj,w some drawings in an old Life magazine that attempted to explain how your ancestors built these huge monuments without machines.

Ra-Mu-En: You do say strange things. The slaves built the Pyramids as the tombs of the great Pharaohs.

Len: What other measurements do you use?

Ra-Mu-En: We use the span. {Stretching out his hand and pointing.) It is the length of my outstretched hand, be- tween the tip of my thumb and the tip of my little finger - a half a cubit.

Len: Half a cubit. They have fractions, too. How many inches do you say, Jeff?

Jeff: I think thaťs about 9 inches. Ra-Mu-En (to himself, questioningly, star-

ing at his hand): Nine inches? (Shrug- ging.) Then there's the palm. (Holding his palm outwards toward the boys.) Thaťs the breadth of these four fingers, from here ... to here.

Jeff (measuring across with his thumb) : Hmmmm. Just about 3 inches.

Ra-Mu-En: Yes. Yes. Now I am beginning to understand you ... 3 inches. But to me it is one-sixth of a cubit.

Len: I'm with you. Three-eighteenths is one-sixth. Go on.

Ra-Mu-En (holding up his left hand with the middle finger outstretched): This is called the digit. It is the width across the knuckle of this middle finger.

Len: Go on, Jeff. Measure it. How much is that?

Jeff: It isn't an inch. I'd say three-fourths of an inch.

Ra-Mu-En: Say what you will. It is one twenty-fourth of a cubit.

Len (to Jeff) : Their fractions all seem to have one as the numerator.

Jeff (to Len) : Be quiet. We're just getting started. This is so interesting we mustn't alarm him by whispering to one another. (To Ra-Mu-En.) We are deeply im- pressed, Honored One. Your measurements compare with ours, only we use

different names and amounts. Can you tell us more?

Ra-Mu-En : We do have another measurement. It is the foot, which became official about the time the Pyramids were erected. (Holding out his sandaled foot.) Naturally it was measured bare. But if you look, you will see that it is about 4 palms long.

Len (leaning over and putting his four fingers along the length of Ra-Mu-En's foot) : Why, so it is, Honored Ra-Mu-En. How many digits is that?

Ra-Mu-En (smiling) : I think your friend Jeff can tell. Jeff?

Jeff: Let's see. About 12 inches. Uh, huh. That's 16 digits.

Ra-Mu-En: Ah, here comes my honored sister, daughter of the Pharaoh. (Princess, older than the boys, enters left stage; walks regally toward boat-landing, partially seen, right stage.)

Ra-Mu-En (bowing low): Most honored Sister, may I present my two friends, Jeff and Len, who come from a strange land.

Princess (accepting his bow and those of the two boys): Your honored father, Pharaoh, has instructed you not to be so imaginative. No people from strange lands are permitted to play in these gardens. Your friends look like Egyp- tians, so do not tease me. I am going boating on the Nile at my usual time.

Ra-Mu-En: I have been explaining our numbers to these boys.

Len (aside, with a low whistle, to Jeff): Isn't she beautiful? She looks just like the statue of a princess I once saw in the Egyptian room at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

Jeff (aside, to Len) : Let's keep on dreaming. This is better than seeing any old statue anywhere. Do you suppose she'll talk to us?

Len: We can only try. (To the princess.) Pray be so kind as to tell us how your boatmen measure distance on water?

Princess : Young boys who wish to learn should be encouraged. I am going only




a few meridian miles down the Nile, with my handmaidens for company.

Ra-Mu-En (to Jeff and Len): My honored Sister means that each mile is 4000 cubits long and has been so for many thousands of years. That is the same as 1000 Egyptian fathoms.

Len: We, too, speak of fathoms. Just what does your fathom mean?

Princess: I still think you are teasing. (Shrugging,) It is the length of both arms outstretched.

Ra-Mu-En: So. (Stretching out both arms.) From here . . . (pointing) ... to here.

Jeff (musingly) : About six feet. Princess (to her brother) : I go to join my

friends. Your lesson about hieroglyphics begins soon?

Ra-Mu-En: Here comes the instructor now. Farewell, beloved Sister. May the gods watch over you and effect your safe return. (Princess leaves stage at landing, left; tall, elderly Egyptian priest, carrying scrolls, enters, right stage.)

Priest: Good day, most honored Ra- Mu-En. (Depositing scrolls on rounded stone table.) I have an audience with Pharaoh, so you may start your lessons. I will return shortly.

Ra-Mu-En (unwinding scroll of paper): This is made from the plants you see growing there in the still waters by the banks of the Nile.

Len : Why, it's the beautiful papyrus plant I saw growing in the conservatory in the DuPont gardens in Delaware. Only these are larger and fuller.

Jeff: This is beautiful heavy-quality paper, Your Highness. It could endure forever.

Ra-Mu-En: Forever? Strange. I dream sometimes, and I try to think what the world will be like many years from now. We study the stars, and we measure the months and days of the year. (Starting and remembering his guests.) But who would want to see the lessons of a boy on paper that endures forever?

Len: Mrs. Warren said that you carved your letters in stone, and that they were called hier-o . . . hier-o-glyp . . .

Jeff: Hieroglyphics? Ra-Mu-En: I will show you these writings

in stone as done by my ancestors. The priest may take us to study one, later in the day. But I do my work on paper. We Egyptians now use a script form called hieratics.

Len: Hieratics? Ra-Mu-En: This script is used by our

priests in keeping their records. I am told that it is an abridged or short form of hieroglyphics. As Pharaoh's son, I, too, must learn to read these hieroglyphics or symbols. I will show you. (Ra-Mu-En unrolls a long scroll. [See illustration at bottom of page.] Jeff and Len hold the ends, as Ra-Mu-En explains.)

Ra-Mu-En: Note that we have strokes for the first numbers. But when I wish to indicate more, I make this symbol stand for one group of ten. (Traces arch with stroke.)

Jeff: It looks like an arch. Ra-Mu-En: This is 100, or ten groups of

ten. Len (laughing) : A coiled rope. Ra-Mu-En: This lotus flower represents

1000. And this . . . (pointing to symbol for 10,000) . . .

1 10 100 1000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000

I Л °) £ <? P t Stroke Arch Coiled Lotus Pointed Tadpole Astonished

rope flower finger man

March 1968 147



Jeff (interrupting): Looks just like your pointed finger.

Len: I'd call the next one a tadpole . . . 100,000.

Ra-Mu-En: This last symbol represents 1,000,000.

Jeff: An astonished man! Ra-Mu-En (propping a fresh paper up-

right) : Leťs try to write larger numbers. These forms are simplified, and I will accept your names for them, although I am uncertain what your words mean.

Len (drawing symbols): Here are three pointed fingers.

Jeff: And here are three lotus flowers. Ra-Mu-En: And five coiled ropes. Len: Why do you put them above one

another? Ra-Mu-En: I am just grouping them. I

can scatter them around and it will still be the same number.

Jeff: How much have we got? Three pointed fingers - thaťs 30,000.

Len: Five coiled ropes - thaťs 500. Ra-Mu-En: You left out the lotus

flowers- thaťs three at 1000, or 3000. Jeff (triumphantly): We just wrote

33,500. (To Ra-Mu-En.) Leťs add something to it.

Len: Hold everything. Leťs start by adding small numbers.

Ra-Mu-En (obligingly making more symbols): Very well. We wish to write twelve, so we'll make an arch, a stroke, and another stroke. /' 1 1 Leťs say we want to write 214.

99Л1Ш Jeff: Thaťs all very nice, but you don't

seem to have any place value. Ra-Mu-En: Place value? My word, you

DO speak of strange things. This is something I must report to the Pharaoh.

Jeff (hastily , and glancing at Len) : Please do not go yet. (To Len.) You try to think of a way to get us out of here, instead of standing there taking it all in.

Len (upset): You're the one that keeps putting in the decimal system we use in America. Can't you just listen for a change?

Jeff (motioning to Len to look around): See if there's a way out of this garden besides the river. (To Ra-Mu-En.) Please forgive this interruption, Honored One.

Ra-Mu-En : I find it interesting to explain it to you. Suppose we wish to add 68 and 45. (Draws swiftly on paper.) Six arches and eight strokes:

ЛЛЛЛЛЛ Illl Mil Four arches and five strokes:

ЛЛЛЛ Mill A total of 113, written so, by grouping:

9 Л III Len (astonished): My goodness. That's

what Mrs. Warren has been telling me about regrouping.

Ra-Mu-En: We can subtract, too. Let's write 62:

ЛЛЛЛЛП II From it, we want 38 :

ЛЛП Illlllll We will take any arch, and break it up into ten strokes:

HUI Hilf Taking the 8, we have 4 strokes left. Taking 3 arches, we have 2 left.

ЛЛ Illl Jeff: That's beautifully simple. How

would you write a hundred million? Son of Pharaoh: Who can envision so

vast an amount? A hundred million what? The sands of the desert, perhaps? Or the drops of water in the Mediterranean?

Jeff: What mathematics is used, then, in your businesses in Egypt?

Ra-Mu-En: I am beginning to mistrust you. You should know that our people are very practical, young man. Our surveyors, our traders, our builders, our officials, all have use for many figures. We need them for areas when the mighty Nile overflows its banks, for volume, for money and trade, for the materials in our temples. . . .(Ra-Mu-




En halts and watches suspiciously, as Len moves away to seek the way out of the garden.) Halt where you are! No one is permitted to approach the Pharaoh's palace through this garden . . . Ho, guards!

CURTAIN

Act III setting: The patio of the home of Jeffrey

Lord, as in Act 1. But the lights are dimmer, to mark the passage of time.

characters: Jeffrey Lord, Mrs. Lord, Mr. Lord. (As the curtains go up, young Jeffrey Lord is seen lying near the brick wall of the patio, asleep. A few textbooks are scattered about nearby.)

Jeff (thickly, but in tones easily distin- guished, struggling in his sleep): NO! No ... Ra-Mu-En . . . Call back your guards. . . . (Mr. Lord enters, left door, and stares at his son in amazement.)

Jeff: Len! Find the Pharaoh's daughter. . . . Run, Len!

Mr. Lord (striding over to Jeff, and shaking him by the shoulder): Jeff! (severely) Wake up! (Shaking him again.) Jeff!

Jeff (struggling to his feet) : Ra-Mu-En? (Vaguely, looking around.) Golly, Dad . . . What a dream! (Waking up completely.)

Mr. Lord (laughing) : I'm glad I got here in time to save you from the guards . . . (dryly) . . . but I gathered you would rather have been saved by a girl?

Mrs. Lord (entering, left door, and joining the family) : Who needs saving? From what?

Jeff (eagerly) : Hi, Mom. I was just about to tell Dad about the terrific dream I had. It was so real that I can hardly believe Len wasn't really there.

Mr. Lord: I'm almost sorry that I woke him. He was talking in his sleep about the daughter of the Pharaoh coming to save him from the guards.

Mrs. Lord (reprovingly): Jeff, dear!

Sleeping, when you should have been studying.

Jeff (happily) : I did study, Mom. I did my arithmetic AND the assignment about Egypt. But I guess I took you seriously about entering into the life and spirit of the times we're studying. I thought Len and I were mysteriously transported back through time and space to ancient Egypt. Only, it seemed so REAL.

Mr. Lord (sympathetically) : Dreams often do. But who is Ra-Mu-En?

Jeff (laughing) : He is - I mean was - the son of Pharaoh. He thought I was of noble blood because I told him I was the son of Jeffrey Lord from America.

Mrs. Lord (laughing) : You must tell us all about it later, dear. (Puzzled.) But belonging to the nobility won't help you pass your tests tomorrow?

Jeff (seriously): I think it will, Mom. This dream helped me visualize how people learned to count, to add and subtract in a different number system, how to figure their calendar with the days and the months, and to write different ways. Their writing makes sense, too. How much time and patience it took them to learn all that!

Mr. Lord (still smiling): Then why call for the guards?

Jeff (seriously): Ra-Mu-En called them because I confused him by trying to explain our decimal system to him.

Mrs. Lord: I don't wonder, since it came from the Hindu-Arabic system cen- turies later.

Jeff (dreamily): Do you know I might like to be a surveyor? The Egyptians had to survey the land again after every flooding of the Nile.

Mr. Lord: I thought you wanted to be old enough to have a go-kart?

Jeff (laughing): Time enough for that. Tim's good about letting us kids hang around while he's working on his.

Mrs. Lord: Whatever will Mrs. Warren think of a boy who learns from a dream?

March 1963 149



Your Ra-Mu-En sounds like a mixed-up Egyptian ghost to me.

Jeff (laughing) : Mrs. Warren is going to be surprised about me. This was a dream. But I feel different somehow. I think I got a different kind of message.

Mr. Lord (teasingly): A message from ancient Egypt. This is better than a seance.

Jeff: O.K., Dad. But they had court astronomers who studied the stars. And their engineers knew about geom- etry . . .Why, do you know that the pyramids are built on a perfect square? And that the four sides face exactly north, south, east and west? And that the ventilating system inside was built in such a way that certain stars shone down them at special times important to the Egyptians?

Mrs. Lord: Modern engineers, surveyors, architects have to know a great deal about math, Jeff.

Jeff (eagerly) : Thaťs the message I got, Mom. The Egyptians had a remarkable system that was very workable for their needs. And IVe just waked to the fact that my studies will help me make the most of the opportunities I'll have in my day and age.

Mr. Lord (sounding encouraged) : Jeff, I do believe you're serious.

Jeff (manfully) : Oh, I am, sir, I'm going to enjoy studying now that I've just found out that math isn't something which Mrs. Warren dreamed up to keep growing boys busy.

Mr. Lord: Help! Now you've got Mrs. Warren dreaming.

Jeff: I didn't mean that, Dad. I'm going to choose my words more carefully. Earlier in the day I said that Mrs. War- ren was "way out there," but I was wrong. I'm the one who was way out.

Mr. Lord (approvingly): Now we're all back to earth again. You're going to be all right, my boy. Respect for learning starts with an interest in learning. Now you know that your teachers can take you as far as you want to gô.

Mrs. Lord (happily) : The sky's the limit. (Startled.) That saying has to go. Now there's no limit to space. Enough of this. Jeff, do straighten out your books. Your father and I will lock up the other part of the house for the night. (Mr. and Mrs. Lord go out, left stage.)

Jeff (running to the door and calling out to them): When we go to New York, will you take me to the Egyptian room at the Metropolitan Museum, Dad?

Mr. Lord (off stage) : Why not? Come on to bed, Jeff.

Jeff (runs back, picks up the books, puts them under his arm, stops, partly facing the audience) : Hmm . . . We study Ro- man life next . . . What's wrong with dreaming? . . . (The curtains start to close.) I can see us now. Jeffrey Lord and Len Hathaway in the land of Romans ♦and Roman numerals.

Mr. Lord (off stage) : Jeff? Jeff (hurrying to door) : Coming, Dad!

CURTAIN Production notes

My purpose in writing this playlet was threefold : as an enrichment topic for sixth- grade studies in mathematics; as an incen- tive for students to try their own creative talents in dramatizing situations that arise in their studies; and as evidence that learning can be challenging, bringing students not only work, but also pleasure and enter- tainment.

In schools where television is used for instructional purposes, this play could be adapted to that medium.

Costuming and staging ideas can be gleaned from illustrations in books, maga- zines, and pamphlets. Children's rich imaginations make elaborate staging un- necessary, and so the simplest props can be suggestive of the atmosphere to be created. Children's suggestions are often the most helpful.

It is possible to have reversible scenery. For example, the brick wall in the first act could be painted as an Egyptian column on the back, and placed upright in Act II.




Bibliography

The Amazing Story of Measurement. Sagi- naw, Mich.: The Lufkin Rule Co., 1959.

Buckingham, Burdette. Elementary Arithmetic. Chicago: Ginn and Com- pany, 1947.

Hogben, Lancelot. Mathematics for the Millions. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1951.

Nerget, H. M. "Life, Culture, and His- tory of the Egyptians," The National Geographic Magazine, LXXX (October, 1941), 484-515.

JNewman, James K. The World of Mathe- matics. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1956.

Swain, Robert. Understanding Arithme- tic. New York: Rinehart and Company, Inc., 1957.

Math's not a mystery - here's its history

GEORGE ANNE FISHER, EDNA LANHAM, JEWELL BREEDING, AND HELEN McDANIEL Mrs. Fisher, Miss Lanham, and Miss Breeding are teachers; Mrs. McDaniel is the elementary director in the Madison Consolidated Schools, Madison, Indiana. Their play was presented at the southwest division of the Indiana State Teachers' Association, Jeffersonville, Indiana, October 27, 1961.

Characters:

Tom, a fourth-grade boy Dick, a fifth-grade boy Harry, a sixth-grade boy Genie, who appears when the magic

lamp is rubbed Og, a boy of long ago, who portrays

counting with objects A Chinese boy carrying an abacus An Egyptian child carrying an hour-

glass and calendar Two Indian lads Two colonial people exchanging

belts, wampum, etc. A modern child carrying a steel tape,

folding ruler, road map Queen of Mathematics dressed in a

robe with mathematics symbols Choral-reading group, consisting of

approximately ten children

Choral-reading group: Who are these boys? And what do they

study? There's Tom! There's Dick! And Harry,

their buddy! They're doing arithmetic. They're all

math whizzes. They always get А9 в in their tests and

quizzes. They each represent grades four, five

and six. When arithmetic's the subject, they

know all the tricks.

Some folks who are grown have trouble with math.

They didn't understand each step along the path.

Their checkbooks won't balance - they just can't relax,

March 1968 151



Out of yesterday: A playlet for sixth grade

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