• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.79-102
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• 2009

Most who have heard of Sang-Seol Lee know him for his contribution to the Korean independence movement nearly a hundred years ago. This paper, however, will discuss Lee's other great contribution to his country; that of being "The father of modern mathematical education in Korea". Lee passed the rigorous government officer examination with the highest honor and became a teacher for the royal prince. Later he became the president of Sunkyunkwan, a national institute of higher learning since 1398, and eventually a well-known university bearing the same name. Lee was also a highly regarded Confucian scholar and well versed in foreign languages. He wanted Korea to become a modern country and felt that the areas of science and engineering were studies that needed improving in order to achieve modernization. While researching Western textbooks on the subjects he realized that Western mathematics would be especially important for Korea. With that, it became his mission to integrate Western mathematics into the Korean educational system. This paper will explain the importance of Sang-Seol Lee's contributions to mathematic education in Korea and how it helped Korea become the modern nation it is today.