The predominant design philosophy behind most Discrete Mathematics (DM) courses is that of a recycling bin: a place where mathematical prerequisites with no other natural home can live out the rest of their days in peace. This fundamentally misunderstands the role of mathematics in computer science. Instead of being a collection of topical prerequisites, mathematics provides a conceptual framework enabling the sort of high-level computational thinking that a computer science bachelor’s degree is supposed to train.

I argue that the field of mathematics in question can be profitably identified with elementary set theory, roughly, the theory of (naive) sets and relations with structural induction. I propose an alternate model of mathematics education in the computer science degree: a `DM1’ (and possibly DM2) course that receives as much importance as the CS1/2 sequence and are similarly foregrounded in the program of study.