Teaching Mathematics in the 21st Century. Responding to a Bigger World

Teaching Mathematics in the 21st Century. Responding to a Bigger World
photo by: Vortistic
By J.G.R. Martinez|N. C. Martinez
Pearson Allyn Bacon Prentice Hall

Even as the utilitarians were urging a reduced mathematics curriculum, others were calling for expansion. World War II had shown Americans a bigger world—a world where Swiss students studied calculus in high school, where scientific breakthroughs were needed, not just to win but to survive. The Commission on Post War Plans called for more, not less, mathematics in education. In 1947 the President’s Commission on Higher Education proposed increasing college enrollments drastically for a minimum of 4.6 million by 1960—a change that would require a college-track mathematics curriculum for millions. By the time the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957 and galvanized public opinion for the space race, educators were already experimenting with new mathematics curricula.

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