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Historical stories in the mathematics classroom

Some years ago when I was co-editor of the German periodical Mathematik lehren we decided to prepare an issue on the history of mathematics. To secure the interest of our usual readership, we planned to elaborate a few hints, recommendations, or suggestions on how to include historical items in the ordinary teaching of mathematics in school. It soon became clear however that this methodological problem would be the critical point of our project. It turned out, as I had feared from the beginning, that only a very few of my colleagues could be talked into writing about this feature of the subject. It was easy to get papers on historical facts or on hypothetical developments, but everyone found it hard to write about practical ways of teaching history in the mathematics classroom.