Enseignement, modernité et mathématiques en France

Abstract

Henri Poincaré spoke twice in public about the directions being taken by the French secondary education system. In 1904, he gave a lecture entitled “Les définitions générales en mathématiques” [General definitions in mathematics]. This was the first of a series of lectures intended to promote the spirit of a reform of secondary education. The supporters of this reform believed it to defend a modern and renewed conception of the humanities that was well-adapted to the economic and industrial challenges facing the country and its elite. In 1911, under the auspices of an association called “Pour la culture française” [In Favour of French Culture] was campaigning against the intentions of this reform, Poincaré published Les Sciences et les Humanités [Science and the Humanities], a text affirming the primacy of the classical humanities. Herein we take another look at the apparent contradiction between these two standpoints based on research into the history of education published since the early 2000s. This work has highlighted a number of mathematicians involved in the reform whose writings and speeches provide a better understanding of the complex epistemological, pedagogical, social and economic issues involved in teaching mathematics and which also shed light on Poincaré’s positions in his two texts.