What in High School Mathematics is of Most Importance as a Preparation for Analytic Geometry and the Calculus in College

One of the educational problems of the day, demanding solution with increasing insistence, is the question of the inter-relations of diverse college entrance examinations and the complex curriculum of the modern high school. This general problem is immediately suggested when a college instructor proposes to indicate the portions of the mathematical subjects commonly taught in the high school which are of most importance for the study of analytic geometry and the calculus. For such an indication implies that the colleges would like to have these portions of the elementary branches emphasized in the high school, and I can almost hear some high school instructor, on looking over the program, say to himself, “An attempt of the college to impose further unreasonable demands on the high school.” Far be it from me to consider the topic proposed in any such spirit. Rather, let the discussion be conducted on the lines, fostered by this and other similar associations, along which progressive high school and college instructors are working harmoniously to secure in the high school a curriculum adapted to the needs of the large body of students who do not go to college and to the adequate preparation of the comparatively few who do.