This paper presents a personal reflection on some ideas about the minimum essential contents for the basic Chemistry course and on the nature of the current general chemistry curriculum for high school. We discuss the essential topics recently reported by teachers of the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria and analyze some of the consequences that such a program could generate in the population. Particular results about the information that the students have is considered in order to have more arguments about the core concepts that are critical to teach. We do not pretend to discuss and analyze the entire proposal about the essential topics that we have to teach. Instead, some ideas that could be useful for the debate are presented in order to continue a discussion that, fortunately, is still open.