The Need for Reform in the Teaching of Mathematics

Extract

Even more than the politician, the educationist must be prepared for the probable trend of events, for on him lies the responsibility of training the next generation to face those events. When civilisation is passing through a period of stability, this responsibility is not very onerous, no doubt he will conceive it to be his duty to be continually seeking for new methods of improving his teaching, but the questions, what shall he teach, and upon what principles shall his teaching be based, hardly arise, or, if they be mooted, are easily answered according to the accepted tenets of the day. In such times as these, philosophers are unlikely to propound theories which upset the whole basis upon which the current society rests. It may indeed happen that some genius, half a century before his time, attacks the foundations, metaphysical and ethical, which underlie the opinions of the day, but few are likely to heed him until changing circumstances compel the attention of the multitude, and the pedagogue, though perhaps influenced intellectually, will be unwilling to jeopardise his security by pointing out defects in a social adjustment which at the time appears to be stable, or by putting into practice theories which may well undermine that stability.