Just teach them the basics and leave the applications to us

The author suggests that as readily available technology is forcing changes in precollege mathematics education that have been long overdue, it is no longer obvious just what the ´basics´ are. Furthermore, a shift in focus, from preparation exclusively for the hard sciences and engineering to preparation that includes combinatorics and the other discrete topics recommended and outlined in the NCTM´s ´Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics´ published in March 1989, has contributed to the confusion. She considers who the students are that high school teachers have tended to identify as the best math students and who the students are who have tended to go on into engineering, noting that they are not always the same people. She then considers changes in mathematics education in terms of student needs.<>