In Brief:

Math Wars 1870 is a game in the format pioneered by the Reacting to the Past project.

The game has important roles for a dozen players and "walk-in" roles for any number of additional players/observers. We have enough participants for two groups to play the game more or less simultaneously. One group will begin Friday evening, October 30, playing from 7:30-10pm, then from 9am to 3:00pm on Saturday (snacks, breakfast, lunch will be supplied). The other group will start Saturday morning, October 31 and play from 8:30am to 3pm. All play will take place in Seelye Hall on the campus of Smith College.

The game will be followed by a panel discussion at 3pm of the many issues involved.



The Setting:

In 1870 a Royal Commission, chaired by William Cavendish, the Seventh Duke of Devonshire and Chancellor of Cambridge University, was established to "make Inquiry with regard to Scientific Instruction and the Advancement of Science" in Britain. Traditionally, high school and university curricula consisted largely of Greek, Latin, and Euclid. Thus the nature, purpose, and place of mathematics lay at the heart of the roiling debates that the commission hoped to settle.

Math Wars 1870 will focus on three questions out of the larger debate:
  • Should Cambridge University institute entrance exams?
  • Should Cambridge University reform its Mathematical Tripos examination, the centerpiece of a Cambridge education for centuries?
  • Should Cambridge University allow colleges for women?



The Game:

Every player in the game will be assigned the character of a participant in the debates. There will be twelve major characters:

Sir Bernhard Samuelson
Thomas Henry Huxley
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
John Stuart Mill
Sir Isaac Todhunter
Emily Davies
William Cavendish, Seventh Duke of Devonshire
Henry John Stephen Smith
Millicent Garret Fawcett
James Joseph Sylvester
Sir William Thompson, First Baron Kelvin
William Whewell

Each player will be given briefing papers and specific goals. In the course of the game, players will caucus with other players representing like-minded characters. They will present arguments for positions and attempt to influence members of the commission. At the end of the game, the commission, consisting of three of the players, will make decisions concerning the key questions.

Those who are interested in participating at a less intense level may assume the characters of concerned but less involved parties, school teachers, math professors, industrialists etc.



The Issues:

After a break, there will be a panel discussion to consider questions raised by the game. Here are a few:

  • What were the actual decisions of the Devonshire commission?

  • What were the forces in British society affecting change in the educational system?

  • How do the educational issues of 1870 relate to those today?

    • Testing
    • Core curricula
    • Basic skills
    • Elite vs. vocational education

  • How does the conception of mathematics in 1870 relate to the conception of mathematics today?

    • The truth of mathematics
    • How mathematics is discovered and known

  • What other episodes in the history of mathematics might be valuable for mathematics students to expore in games such as this?

  • What does this have to do with David Cohen?


The Panelists:

The panel will consist of:
  • Marjorie Senechal, Louise Wolff Kahn Professor Emerita in Mathematics & Statistics and in the History of Science. Professor Senechal is a leader in the study of mathematical chrystallography and co-editor of The Mathematical Intelligencer. She is the co-author, with David Cohen, of Math Wars 1870.

  • Patrick Coby, Professor of Government at Smith College. Professor Coby's research focuses on the major figures of Western political thought. He is responsible for bringing the Reacting to the Past games to Smith.

  • Rosetta Cohen, Professor of Education. Professor Cohen has studied and written on comparative education and the history of education.

  • Kristi Cooper '95 was a student of David's at Smith. She has taught high school in North Carolina with Teach for America and is currently teaching at Chatham University in Pennsylvania. She has an M.S. in biostatistics from the University of Michigan.



The Players:

The players will be a mix of David's friends including:

Smith alumnae,
Smith students,
Smith faculty (mathematics and other departments), and
Visitors from all over.



Reacting to the Past:

Reacting to the Past is an innovative teaching construct that gives students a vivid sense of how history is put together. It consists of games like Math Wars 1870 in which students take historical roles, reacting to the forces and events that shape history.

See Reacting to the Past