Geometry for Elementary Teachers

The authors are Elementary School teachers in Ohio and Missouri. They feel that geometry is a neglected or overlooked subject in elementary school. Children have a natural interest in squares and circles as well as in strings. Yet they are taught little about these things. Instead they are taught simple arithmetic and multiplication tables. This book advocates a course to teach teachers how to teach children.

I remember in Seventh Grade my school teacher Miss Lulu Fones berated some unfortunate girls from the local Presbyterian Orphanage, calling them "pathetic" because they could not remember their multiplication tables, so the girls ran away from home and would not come back to the school.

Teaching the children about squares, circles and triangles instead might have solved this problem.

Few copies of this original book are available at the well known booksellers. My copy is stamped COMPLIMENTARY COPY NOT TO BE SOLD This suggests that this book was a proof copy, not ready to be put into production or made available for classroom use.

This work was first conceived and published by Frederick Holden Murphy.

Murphy was born on March 11, 1929 in Washington DC, to Frederick Joseph (Fritz) Murphy and his wife, Celeste. Murphy was raised in Abington, MA, one of seven children. Following graduation from Abington High School in 1947, Murphy enlisted in the U.S. Army as part of the GI Bill and served as an Airborne Paratrooper. In 1949, Murphy enrolled at Georgetown University in Washington DC, graduating in 1953 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Government. Mr. Murphy's studies at Georgetown, particularly courses in physics and cosmology, led him to a career in scientific textbook publishing.

After college, Murphy worked as a sales representative for Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. In 1959, at the age of 30, he started his own college textbook publishing company, Holden-Day Inc., in San Francisco, CA, which specialized in math and science textbooks. He served as President of Holden-Day until 1992. Holden Day published books by many well-known scholars such as Carl Sagan and Carl Djerassi. Murphy enjoyed his career working with many other notables professors from universities across the country including Stanford, UCLA, and MIT.

After retiring as president of Holden-Day, Mr. and Mrs. Murphy moved to Boca Raton, FL. He was a life-long member of the Catholic Church. Mr. Murphy was survived by his wife, Martha, his son, Fritz, and daughter, Celeste Greene, four grandsons, his sister, and two brothers. In 1963, Mr. Murphy married his wife, Martha, in San Francisco and they were married 48 years. They had two children, Frederick Holden Jr. (Fritz) and Celeste, raising them in Piedmont, CA and living there for 20 years.

The authors are Elementary School teachers in Ohio and Missouri. They feel that geometry is a neglected or overlooked subject in elementary school. Children have a natural interest in squares and circles as well as in strings. Yet they are taught little about these things. Instead they are taught simple arithmetic and multiplication tables. This book advocates a course to teach teachers how to teach children.

I remember in Seventh Grade my school teacher Miss Lulu Fones berated some unfortunate girls from the local Presbyterian Orphanage, calling them "pathetic" because they could not remember their multiplication tables, so the girls ran away from home and would not come back to the school.

Teaching the children about squares, circles and triangles instead might have solved this problem.

Few copies of this original book are available at the well known booksellers. My copy is stamped COMPLIMENTARY COPY NOT TO BE SOLD This suggests that this book was a proof copy, not ready to be put into production or made available for classroom use.

This work was first conceived and published by Frederick Holden Murphy.