Algebraic Magic Squares

There comes a time in the school year, usually during the spring term, when the mathematics teacher becomes convinced that as far as algebra is concerned, he might just as well be teaching so many “wooden Indians.” Those pupils, who are not wholly in a trance, are surreptitiously fondling a baseball glove, while x’s and y’s pass by unheeded. The teacher’s first impulse is to give every one a good shaking in a frantic attempt to close the ever-widening gap between the intellectual capacity of his pupils and the intelligibility of his subject. He realizes something must be done at once, if his class is to learn any more algebra that year.