Commentary: The Eighties

It is a worthwhile exercise to look back and learn from the past. As educators, we often think that our present concerns in education are unique. However, it is not uncommon to find out that someone else has also encountered the same issue. If you have been teaching long enough, chances are you will have experienced the same concern before but labelled it in a different way. As your experience accumulates, these same concerns tend to reappear, as though on a cycle.

With these thoughts in mind I began reading the ten articles that were chosen from the Journal of the Saskatchewan Mathematics Teachers’ Society (JSMTS) to celebrate ‘The Eighties.’ The articles’ authors sought to make a contribution to improve the teaching of mathematics. It is my hope to retain their message through the liberal use of quotes and to exercise my license to change the chronological order of the articles according to themes and include some ‘present day’ commentary.