New times demand new interpretations of what it means to be numerate in a global world. Policy and curriculum documents uphold notions of capable young learners, actively engaged in investigative learning processes that will carry them on to competent and confident participation in the social and economic world of tomorrow. However, as the author attempts to show in this post-structuralist analysis, active learning processes do not always achieve the envisaged aims; subconsciously, teachers hold on to traditional notions of learners and learning mathematics that, in practice, eclipse their best intentions. Even in the early years of schooling the "process" of learning mathematics becomes difficult when the new becomes the old, and tired old teaching practices and relationships prevail. (Contains 1 table.)