Summary: The aim of this article is to clarify the role of arithmetic progressions of higher order in the set of all progressions. It is important to perceive them as the pairs of progressions closely connected by simple relations of differential or cumulative progressions, i.e. by operations denoted in the text by $Δ$ and $\nabla$. This duality affords in a natural way the concept of an alternating arithmetic progression that deserves further studies. All these progressions can be identified with polynomials and very special, explicitly described, recursive progressions. The results mentioned here point to a very close relationship among a series of mathematical objects and to the importance of combinatorial numbers; they are presented in a form accessible to the graduates of secondary schools.