As far back as I can remember arithmetic, number, and applied mathematics have been interesting to me. The teaching of number and arithmetic has been a hobby of mine for twenty-five years. At the ripe old age of eighteen, in taking inventory of my ambitions and my means of attaining them, I found on the credit side of the ledger that I had attended college for one year, had passed all my work creditably, and had a burning passion to finish my college degree. On the debit side of the ledger I found that I had spent all of my money and would need to earn the necessary funds with which to finish the three remaining years of college for the completion of the degree. My father being a close friend of the chairman of the board of education in my home town, it was arranged that I would teach the sixth grade in the local elementary school.