(Ministry of Education, 1958, page17)
Cooper (1985) shows that university mathematicians allied with elite public school teachers were successful during the early 1960 in bringing the school mathematics curriculum closer to modern university mathematics (although technological pragma-tists were also successful in introducing more applications into contents).
The old humanist view of mathematic, with variation, has a traditions two and a half millennia old. It identifies mathematical talent pure intelligence, regarded as an inherited character. The view is that of the mathematics establishment, and is centred on the structure of mathematical knowledge, and on the values of mathematicians, so it is ‘mathematics-centred’. It was epitomized by pure mathematicians at universities, sitting on the Examinations Boards and the Mathematical Association, in Britain.
D. The Mathematical Aims and Ideology of the Old Humanists
Aims of mathematics education
The aims of this group for mathematics education are those of the old humanists applied to mathematics: a concern with the transmission of mathematical knowledge, culture and values. The goal is to transmit pure mathematics per se, with an emphasis on the structure, conceptual level and rigour of the subject. The aim is to teach mathematics for its intrinsic value. as central part of the human heritage, culture and intellectual achievement. This getting students to appreciate and value the beauty and aesthetic dimension of pure mathematics, through immersion in its study. Avery important subsidiary aim is the education of future pure mathematicians, which introduces the element of elitism.
Theory of school mathematical knowledge
School mathematics is understood to be, like the discipline itself, a pure, hierarchically structured self-subsistent body of objective knowledge. Higher up the hierarchy, mathematics becomes increasingly pure, rigorous and abstract. Students are encouraged to climb up this hierarchy as far as possible, according to their ‘mathematical ability’. As they ascend, they get closer to ‘real’ mathematics, the ‘subject taught and studied at university level.