ABSTRACT
B y 1940, the many natural connections between mathematics as taught in secondary schools and mathematics in colleges and universities had become very weak. High-school teachers
were simply teachers, expected just to train their students to manipulate numbers, manage algebra and perhaps even to understand that Euclidean geometry rests on axioms. About 1955, my own connection to the International Mathematical Union brought me to prepare a sort of report on secondary school mathematics education in the United States-the actual title was “Algebra,” as published in the Yearbook of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. It was my opinion that new ideas should be brought in to secondary schools, and teachers should be better trained.
