We have seen how in the first half of the nineteenth century there were rapid and considerable developments in the teaching of mathematics at Cambridge University and within what we should nowadays term the secondary sector of education. There was also considerable mathematical activity outside schools, colleges and other such educational institutions. In a wider educational context, the period saw the State's first involvement in elementary education and teacher-training. The need for a national educational system was gradually being realised, as was the desirability of having teachers who had not only achieved mastery of academic material but had also received instruction in the art of teaching. Thomas Tate's interest in mathematics was aroused in an unconventional way and he himself was to carry on the ‘popular tradition’ in mathematics education before being appointed as effectively the country's first mathematics teacher-trainer, and becoming renowned as an educator and textbook author.

THOMAS TATE AND THE POPULAR TRADITION

Thomas Tate was born in Alnwick, Northumberland, in February 1807, the second son of a builder. Both he and his elder brother, George, attended the Borough School in Alnwick, but only George appears to have become a pupil at the Dukes (Grammar) School (1). It may well be that the elementary school catered more for Thomas' scientific tastes, since its master, James Ferguson, was to show his interest in, and ability for, mathematics by producing a new edition of Hutton's Arithmetic (2).