In this article, I present the eighteenth century’s polemic of Bernoulli and d’Alembert concerning the smallpox epidemic and a prevention method called inoculation. Through an analysis of the polemic and the related resources, I show that this historical debate has various interests for mathematics education; and more specifically it can help teachers to confront dilemmas emerging with the COVID-19 pandemic (for example if a teacher should talk about it in class or not, how to help students to interpret the statistical data and the mathematical models connected to the pandemic and more generally, how to deal with the confusions and concerns emerging in connection to the pandemic). I describe the documents related to the historical polemic as transitional objects, having a potential to reveal the teachers’ own professional or personal experiences, reflections and questions, and to stimulate dialogue with them on these issues. I illustrate this proposition by the presentation of an online reading seminar realized with a French group of teachers in April 2020.

在这篇文章中，我介绍了 18 世纪伯努利和达朗贝尔关于天花流行的论战以及一种称为接种的预防方法。通过对争论和相关资源的分析，我表明这场历史争论对数学教育具有不同的意义；更具体地说，它可以帮助教师应对 COVID-19 大流行带来的困境（例如，教师是否应该在课堂上谈论它，如何帮助学生解释与大流行相关的统计数据和数学模型，以及更一般地说，如何处理与大流行有关的困惑和担忧）。我将与历史论战相关的文件描述为过渡对象，有可能揭示教师自己的专业或个人经历，思考和问题，并鼓励与他们就这些问题进行对话。我通过在 2020 年 4 月与一群法国教师一起举办的在线阅读研讨会来说明这一主张。