Wow! Our Forefathers Cut Their Teeth on Ray's Arithmetic!

Looking at the sad state of public education today, it isn’t any wonder to those of us that homeschool WHY we chose to homeschool. Certainly the lack of quality and content with the rise of value-based education had some sort of influence on your decision to home educate, (although I don’t presume it is the only reason for that decision). The American school system was not always such a squandering, time-waster that prepared kids to feel good about themselves no matter how poorly they performed (everyone gets a trophy!!!).


There was a time when American’s had the best education in the world. Standards were high and morals were higher. From approximately 1865 to 1916 everyone used the same textbook for math, reading, grammar and science.


“So why did the United States stop using them? It is a sad story: After WWI, John Dewey, the head of the Teachers College at Columbia University launched an all-out campaign to "reform" education. Dewey was a humanist, a socialist, and an atheist. He saw the McGuffey Readers and the entire EES as threats - they emphasize patriotism, traditional values, and the Bible. Dewey believed, in his own words, that public schools should be the "State established church." Dewey viciously attacked the textbooks of the day as "antiquated" and he was able to successfully bring about their demise, as well as the demise of quality public education.”


The above quote is brought to you by Dollar Homeschool Company. They are enabling homeschoolers of today to have the textbooks of yesterday. They sent me a free copy of Ray’s Arithmetic to review from the original Eclectic Education Series that early American's used in their one room schoolhouses.


I have seen McGuffey's Readers, and even had a copy of one of the Readers at some point during my early homeschooling years. I remember how charming, how innocent, how “non-fluff” they were. Yet, also challenging! I had not heard of Ray’s Arithmetic, however, until I received my copy from Dollar Homeschool Company.


Here’s my dilemma: I see the benefit of this rigorous curriculum, I see the lack of intensity that is often present in modern day curricula, and I really appreciate the availability of this material once again. However, if you are not a math-minded sort (which I definitely am not!), I cannot imagine the structure of this math curricula giving you anything but stress.


I feel like the hunter that kills Bambi’s dad saying this; but there’s just no way I could use Ray’s Arithmetic. There are absolutely no visual cues, and it is written much like verses in the Bible. I have never seen math problems in paragraph form until now. Rather than problems separated by space, there are just problems written one after the other for the entire lesson. Although there are directions to use counters such as beans or marbles (in arithmetic, for example), there are not any examples for students to refer to. This would just drive me crazy, as a student or an adult!


I so appreciate what Dollar Homeschool Company is trying to do by bringing back Ray’s Arithmetic, but I also think they may be wise to consider a revised version, in which examples are added and space is provided to have a visual “rest” between problems. Being a visual learner, I would really struggle to do the curriculum as is.


That said, I realize that we are all not alike in our mental wiring. There are probably plenty of you that would see the great potential in this style of textbook and method of learning. After all, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” right? Well, the American education system certainly wasn’t broke before Mr. Dewey came along with his “bright” ideas. I guess I would have figured it out or flunked out as a child back in the day when Ray’s Arithmetic was the only way to do things! I know I would have just adapted in that time period, but I must say I am thankful that I have other choices now.


I will say that if you have a love for all things yesteryear, you should at least give a look to the charming material that Dollar Homeschool carries. The McGuffey’s series is easy to use and has beautiful, old fashioned illustrations as well as providing a solid English foundation. There’s grammar, history and science as well, all at exceptional prices. Ray’s Arithmetic is a phenomenal bargain, giving you the entire collection of textbooks: that’s 12 core textbooks, plus teacher’s manuals, as well as other interesting math texts, such as Surveying and Navigation and Bookkeeping all on one CD for just $59! You couldn’t touch that price for anything similar. Even if it is just for curiosities sake, to peek at what our forefathers used to learn their subjects, I hope you will take a look at the website by clicking here. It is always interesting, to me, to see how other people think and how different we all are in the way that we learn. It will at least give you an appreciation for all the wonderful curriculum choices we have today, and perhaps persuade you to take a stab at the curricula of yesterday, too!