Battleground Schools

One thing that struck me while reading the article was how a hatred/fear of math can be passed down from parents and teachers to students. Because the people who influence policy have their own personal histories with math education, they cannot talk about the best policy without bias. Even the people who have succeeded in math are influenced by the fact that they were able to succeed within the current system. They think the system works in general because it worked for them. I suppose this is how traditions are established. People who make decisions make them based on their own personal knowledge base, even if this knowledge base is not fully representative of the real world.

I was also interested by the relationship between the approach taken to math education and the American political landscape. The philosophy of math education reflected what Americans were afraid of. When they feared fascism and conformity, they looked for an education system that taught students how to think independently. When the concern was competing with the Soviet Union, they looked for a system that would turn every student into a "potential future rocket scientist". I think this  demonstrates how imbedded in culture and historical context education policies really are.

I also found the Bourbaki group of mathematicians and their philosophy of mathematics to be very interesting. It seems so strange to me that they would try to ban all diagrams and reject geometry. So many people think very visually and visuals can be so helpful in revealing relationships that banning their use seems like it would only be detrimental to furthering mathematical knowledge.