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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 June 2025
Introduction
The three mathematics education revolutions in my life were called the New Math, the reaction to it called “Back to Basics”, and the current one, which is best illustrated by the NCTM Standards.
In the New Math period, many mathematicians were active in what would now be called education reform. However, there were also some mathematicians who expressed serious reservations about what was happening. Morris Kline was the most vocal, but far from the only one. A group of 64 mathematicians signed an article protesting the direction taken by the then current reforms. This article, “On the mathematics curriculum of the high school”, was published in both the American Mathematical Monthly and in The Mathematics Teacher [1]. It was also reprinted in Kline's book Why Johnny Can't Add [16]. While the problems associated with the New Math were different from those the current reforms are causing, this article is still worth reading. Here is one paragraph from it:
6. ‘Traditional’ mathematics. The teaching of mathematics in the elementary and secondary schools lags far behind present day requirements and highly needs essential improvement: we emphatically subscribe to this almost universally accepted opinion. Yet the often heard assertion that the subject matter taught in the secondary schools is obsolete should be closely scrutinized and should not be taken simply at face value. Elementary algebra, plane and solid geometry, trigonometry, analytic geometry and the calculus are still fundamental, as they were 50 or 100 years ago: future users of mathematics must learn all these subjects whether they are preparing to become mathematicians, physical scientists, social scientists or engineers, and all these subjects can offer cultural values to the general students.
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