Arithmetic

= __ARITHMETIC__ =  By 1850, most schools had arithmetic books in addition to the traditional reading book. A progressive arithmetic book started with simple addition and subtraction, and went on to fractions, percentages, extraction of square and cube roots, and complicated geometric measurements. Sometime after 1881 a book called Common School Book-Keeping, by Packard and Bryant, adapted to "individual and class instruction in schools and academies." It was important that the rural youths must be able to "figger." Many of the story problems in their texts dealt with familiar situations.