Unterricht als Prozeß der Befreiung vom Gegenstand — Visionen eines neuen Mathematikunterrichts

The central thesis is that one of the functions of mathematics education within the official educational system should be to make a contribution for the liberation from mathematics. It is argued that there exist many possibilities for gaining (scientific) knowledge outside schools, that there exists a lot of (scientific) knowledge, which is sometimes perceived as a burden and has generated phenomena such as “mathophobia”. Mathematics itself has been a means for the liberation of men from (his first) nature, but now it has become a “second nature”, from which delivering is necessary. Mathematics education can fulfil this new function mainly by emphasizing questions of sense in the classroom and, thus, questions of the relation between men and knowledge. Some consequences of these claims are discussed, concerning teacher’s role in the classroom, the use of media (especially textbooks), the use of computers, the dealing with errors in mathematics learning and the connection with social learning.