Why are mathematics skills a necessary part of a general education program? To begin with, the purpose of a general education mathematics course is to develop quantitative reasoning skills and the necessary prerequisites to thinking critically about quantitative issues. The need and uses for these skills are found throughout the entire curriculum, particularly throughout the requirements of a typical general education program.

It is clear that without an understanding of quantitative reasoning, one cannot succeed in a natural science class given the use of mathematical modeling and data analysis inherent in the scientific method.

Similarly, without an understanding of quantitative reasoning, one cannot succeed in a social science class given the explicit reliance on empirical data and its analysis inherent in these disciplines.

But what about art? Can one draw, or paint, or sculpt, or photograph without a quantitative intuition for the spatial interrelationships of objects? Can one understand classical art without an ability to understand the properties of the golden rectangle which pervades such works of art as the Parthenon and the Mona Lisa? Can one understand Cubism without an ability to understand its relationship to the geometrical art of Africa?

And what of history? Can one understand human events without an ability to understand the quantitative relationships of the time and space framework within which those events take place? Can one understand international events without an ability to understand the effects of distances between countries and the varying amounts of time needed to travel and communicate over those distances throughout the centuries? Can one understand the structure of the Puritan family without an ability to understand the interplay between the physical size of their homes, the number of people in the family, the effect of physical proximity on family relationships?

And what of literature? Can one understand Shakespeare without an ability to understand the Globe theater, the size of the stage and the theater, the need for actors to project and the relationships these quantities have to the ways in which the Bard structured his words?

And what of foreign cultures? Can one understand a foreign culture without an ability to understand the ways in which quantitative reasoning techniques are the same and different across cultures?

In his definition of ethnomathematics, D’Ambrosio ("The History of Mathematics and Ethnomathematics: How a Native Culture Intervenes in the Process of Learning Science") says that mathema means "explaining and understanding in order to transcend, managing and coping with reality in order to survive," tics means quantitative techniques and that ethnos refers to a cultural context.

Thus mathematics is the collection of quantitative techniques that humans have developed in order to survive and thrive in the world, including not only attention to material needs and practices such as the sciences but also such endeavors as art, culture, and literature.

With this definition of mathematics, can one truly understand any human activity without an ability to understand the basic principles of quantitative reasoning inherent in all such activities?