A utilitarian math world : the tail that wags the dog

One of the priorities of mathematics educators and teachers has been to improve mathematics learning in the classroom: to experiment with different teaching methods. The objective is to engage children with the mathematics they study by allowing them to explore and enabling them to think about the problem in multiple ways rather than memorising procedures and formulas. But, what about the world outside this classroom? What is happening in this world and how is it going to influence and affect classroom efforts in the future? This article takes the readers through a short journey of such a world and tries to highlight what the world often offers for mathematics in general, and mathematics education, in particular. Roaming around streets and markets in India, you would often come across posters, pamphlets and hoardings of coaching centres which claim to have Remedies for all your Math Problems. It is exciting to see these ‘Mathematics’ hoardings which stand tall along with the hoardings of cars and apartments for sale, near highways, streets, roads or in markets. Thousands pass by and see them daily. They would have absorbed some impression about mathematics. What is the (perhaps half-baked and partial) impression that people who have passed by these hoardings must have absorbed about mathematics