POPULARIZATION OF MATHEMATICS IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA

The situation concerning the popularization of mathematics (PoM) probably differs substantially from country to country. Trying to characterize the situation in Czechoslovakia, the following features should be pointed out:

1. (1) The main sections of public targetted are children, pupils and students. Almost no efforts are made to target another groups of citizens: adults, workers, professional scientists and specialists in other branches.

2. (2) The schools, unfortunately, play rather a negative role: maths is often presented as a rigid collection of formal theorems, formulae and proofs with no history, no development and no connection with the pupils' everyday-life experience. It often evokes feelings of tediousness, uselessness or fatal incapacity to understand it.

3. (3) On the other hand, a wide network of out-of-class activities has been developed, the majority of which are organized by small groups of enthusiastic mathematicians, mathematics teachers and university students, often only with a meagre financial support from local authorities. Nevertheless, this approach to popularization prove to be very efficient and vital. Here the main work in PoM in Czechoslovakia is done.

4. (4) The mathematicians themselves do not care enough about PoM. This results in relatively small numbers wishing to study mathematics or to become maths teachers. Therefore the quality of maths teachers and that of teaching mathematics is lower ⇒ the image of mathematics is poor ⇒ there is a shortage of those wishing to teach … and we fall into the well-known cycle which was discussed (but not solved) in several sections at ICME-6 in Budapest.

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