Challenges, Hopes, Actions, and Tensions in the Early Years of the International Commission on the Teaching of Mathematics

The International Commission on the Teaching of Mathematics can be considered the parent of the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI). This chapter describes the activities and major ideas of this Commission from its foundation in 1908 through the First World War. A brief account of the events in the community of mathematicians that formed the background of this foundation is presented as well. The chapter also outlines the steps that first brought the dissolution of the Commission and, later, its reconstitution in 1928 during the International Congress of Mathematicians in Bologna