The Future of Secondary Instruction in Geometry

If the future of secondary instruction in geometry is to be judged in the light of the past, two thousand years may elapse without any material change. Horace boasted of a monument more enduring than bronze. Euclid’s Elements has stood like a granite monolith against the intellectual erosion of centuries. This book has seen the decline of great civilizations, the rise and fall of empires, and the birth of great religions. It has passed unscathed through countless successions of languages and dialects. Such is its perfection of detail that all attempts at improvement during its two milleniums of existence have led only to a return to its original form and substance.