The changes in status of mathematical objects and mathematical proof at various stages
of development offer an alternative viewpoint to consider the relationship between
elementary and advanced mathematical thinking. Indeed, it reveals very different forms
of mathematics in school and university. The “New Math” of the nineteen sixties was an
attempt to introduce a set-theoretic deductive approach in elementary mathematics and it failed. Now mathematics educators involved with mathematics in school are operating in an age of democratic equality of opportunity which is predicated on a broad curriculum suitable for the needs of the wide population. There are signs that the curriculum in elementary mathematics is producing students less ready to study mathematics at university.