What humans do with the language of mathematics is to describe patterns.

Mathematics, in the common lay view, is a static discipline based on formulas...But outside the public view, mathematics continues to grow at a rapid rate...the guid to this growth is not calculation and formulas, but an open ended search for pattern.

We believe that arithmetic as it has been taught in grade schools until quite recently has such a meagre intellectual content that the oft-noted reaction against the subject is not an unfortunate rebellion against a difficult subject, but a perfectly proper response to a preoccupation with triviality.

Philosophically, mathematics is not a part of science. Mathematics studies patterns, science studies nature

What humans do with the language of mathematics is to describe patterns... To grow mathematically children must be exposed to a rich variety of patterns appropriate to their own lives through which they can see variety, regularity, and interconnections.

The lock-step approach of algebra, geometry, and then more algebra (but rarely any statistics) is still dominant in U. S. schools, but hardly anywhere else. This fragmented approach yields effective mathematics education not for the many but for the few primarily those who are independently motivated and who will learn under any conditions.