An Interesting Conversation
While not quite the Lincoln-Douglas debates, over the last several days, an old argument has been resurrected on math-teach@mathforum.org . Those not recently conversant with that long-standing free-for-all list likely don't know that after a decade or so as the wild west of mathematics education lists, where anything went and often did, in spades, the list owners have stepped in to bring peace, harmony, and bliss to this particular battleground in the Math Wars. Thus, the lion now lies down with the lamb, all is civility, no epithets are hurled, no ad hominem attacks launched, and decorum is the order of the day. And yet, intriguing undertones, sometime imported from more venerable and genteel locations such as NOTICES of the AMS, 54(2007), pp 822-3 There, one may find an exchange between Jerry Rosen, a founding member of Mathematically Correct and a Cal State Northridge mathematician and Sol Garfunkel of COMAP regarding old questions about who is to blame for the alleged contempo