This article examines several important moments in the history of mathematics education history to provide another lens through which to view modern mathematics education in the United States. At the turn of the twentieth century, mathematics education in the United States had been the subject of educational concern for more than a century. Substantial developments in pedagogy and curriculum were sparked by a reevaluation of the teaching and learning of the Colonial Period, which was dominated by the "rules" or "rule method" of teaching which valued core tenets of mental discipline theory (Cohen, 2016; Kliebard, 2004). In the early 1800's, groundbreaking advancements in pedagogy driven by innovative textbook authors challenged the pedagogy of procedural drill and memorization by advocating for a focus on developing conceptual understanding through hands-on, exploratory learning (Bidwell & Clason, 1970; Bjarnadóttir, 2014; Cohen, 2016). This continued well into the Progressive Era of education in the early 1900's, which centered on the holistic development of the individual child to become a fulfilled, productive member of society (Dewey, 1915; Rodgers, 2002).