An abacus might help young math students

San Antonio Express writes, "Can the old-fashioned one-room schoolhouse provide new lessons for today's students and educators?"

Photo: San Antonio Express

The 1883 edition of "The Cyclopedia of Education" listed the most important learning tools for a 19th-century one-room school. They included a chalk board, clock, hand bell, maps, thermometer, world globe, dictionary, Bible, pencils, pens, ink stands and a teaching abacus.

Variations of most of these tools and resources are still found in classrooms today. One notable exception is the abacus, which many teachers abandoned long before the arrival of electronic calculators and personal computers.

The abacus goes back at least a few thousand years. Early abacuses were as simple as rows of pebbles or other movable counters on a flat board. Grooves were provided to keep the counters properly aligned.
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Source: San Antonio Express