What we are witnessing here is symptomatic of much of the recent trend of appeasement in education: instead of trying to uphold a certain standard and help mold as-yet-unformed minds, educators simply accept the deterio- rations in the classroom as a given. It would only be a small step to apply such a philosophy in earnest to demand a total revamping of undergraduate, and even graduate mathematics programs in order to fit the needs of the new generation. Is such a statement sheer fantasy? Hardly. You think what is taking place in K-12 and calculus does not conform to your conception of mathematics? A remedy has already been.
