Abstract
Mary Everest (1832–1901) lived in Britain during the reign of Queen Victoria, at a time when higher education was foreclosed to women, one of the causes for the lack of women scientists. She spent some years of her childhood in France and received her first mathematical education from a French teacher who aroused her interest in science. However, she, like others, managed to train herself, thanks to her great determination and the network of contacts which she had access to during her youth. In 1855 she married George Boole (1815–1864), himself a self-taught mathematician, who completed his younger bride and then wife’s mathematical training, also involving her in the writing of his treatise on differential equations.
How children should get their first notions of number hardly anybody in this country knows, and, but for the goodly band of ladies who have now begun to study education scientifically, we might add hardly anybody in this country seems to care.
Reverend Robert Herbert Quick (1831–1891), [1]
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Magrone, P., Gasca, A.M. (2020). Mathematical Imagination and the Preparation of the Child forScience: Sparks from Mary Everest Boole. In: Emmer, M., Abate, M. (eds) Imagine Math 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42653-8_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42653-8_21
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