Focus in this paper is on the importance of materials technology, the matter and energy crises, and the interrelatedness of our increasing need for materials, and the implications for education. Following a short history of what materials have done for man and what man has done with materials, particularly in the development of various metals and composites, from the earliest records to the space age, the author notes that it was mainly through the rise of education in this country that science and technology grew to have a profound effect on the national economy and that the rapid development of materials technology in the past 30 years is one of the primary reasons for such seeming impossibilities as jet passenger planes. He observes that this materials technology development is continuing and challenges educators to look carefully at processes now shaping our world and those expected in the near future, not just to keep abreast of technology but to teach it to those who must follow. (MF)