In higher education today, mathematics has been marginalized: except to a tiny elite, it is either taught as a tool required for the study of other sciences or it is entirely absent. Yet mathematics has been and is an essential ingredient in our understanding and mastery of the physical world, our economic life, our information technology and, increasingly, the workings of biology. Its key insights belong in the toolkit of all educated people. Unfortunately, present-day school instruction isolates mathematics from the tangible things that were its historical roots: the geometry and physics of the world, data and commerce, chance and randomness. We will look at the history of mathematics in western culture, the nature of the present-day alienation of our society from mathematics and suggest some ideas for bridging this gap.