Mathematics school education provides answers -- to which questions? (Q446237)

Summary: If mathematics education at school is the answer, what was the question? What is the primary goal of mathematics education at schools? My claim will be that: (a) It is not one goal but at least three; and (b) These goals are moving targets. To name three primary goals: 1. To present mathematics as a part of our culture and as a basis for modern key technologies, presenting answers to very basic, very natural questions, in history, in the present and in the future. 2. To present mathematics as a field that equips everyone with the ability to give answers to important problems and questions that occur in daily life. 3. To introduce mathematics as a field of study -- and to lay the foundations for possible (university or vocational) studies in science, engineering or mathematics itself. All these goals change over time -- so in shaping and designing the mathematics school curricula we must be careful that the questions haven't changed fundamentally by the time our answers are being implemented\dots