Traditional Content

K-12 math should no longer necessarily cover the same content that has been traditionally taught under the headings "arithmetic", "algebra", and "geometry".

According to the NCTM Standards: Introduction:

Calculators and computers have "changed the very nature of the problems important to mathematics and the methods mathematicians use to investigate them".

"quantitative techniques have permeated almost all intellectual disciplines. However, the fundamental mathematical ideas needed in these areas are not necessarily those studied in the traditional algebra-geometry-pre calculus-calculus sequence."

"For many non mathematicians, arithmetic operations, algebraic manipulations, and geometric terms and theorems constitute the elements of the discipline to be taught in grades K-12. This may reflect the mathematics they studied in school or college rather than a clear insight into the discipline itself."