RePoSS #11: The Mathematics of Niels Henrik Abel: Continuation ...

2.1. Childhood and education 19
Figure 2.2: The southern part of Norway with Christiania and Finnøy marked. See
also (Stubhaug, 2000, 136).
fortune — a situation which only deteriorated after SØREN GEORG died in 1820 leav-
ing his widow a thirty year commitment of financial donations to the university in
Christiania.
During his years in Copenhagen, SØREN GEORG had been influenced by the re-
formist education and he took care of the primary education of his sons himself. Ac-
cordingly, the focus was on the catechism and skills in reading, writing, and basic
arithmetic. In 1815, when NIELS HENRIK was 13, he and his elder brother H. M. ABEL
(1800–1842) were sent to the Cathedral School in Christiania. There, they were taught
classical and modern languages, as well as arithmetic and geometry. ABEL passed his
examen artium in 1821 with first grades in the mathematical disciplines, second grade
in French, and only third grades in German, Latin, and Greek. 5 In the lower classes,
ABEL demonstrated no particular affinity for the mathematical disciplines but was a
fair student in all subjects. However, this situation dramatically changed to the better
due to an unfortunate event which took place in 1817–18.
In November of 1817, H. P. BADER (1790–1819), ABEL’S mathematics teacher, phys-
ically molested one of his pupils who later died from this hands-on approach to math-
ematics education. BADER, who had a record of hot temper and violent teaching
methods, was excused from his teaching obligations, and HOLMBOE stepped in as
5 (N. H. Abel, 1902d, 3)