Actually I’m less concerned about math than other subjects. Most people don’t ever need anything beyond standard arithmetic. But the inability of high school graduates to even compose proper paragraph is appalling. Ditto their utter ignorance of our history. But with people who think FDR got on TV and calmed the nation when the stock market crashed in 1929 running this country it’s no surprise.
I respectfully disagree. I’d say people need math more than they need to know proper punctuation.
Most people have no clue what tax bracket they are in. Or how much they even pay in taxes each year. They are incapable of doing this simple math and so are not incensed by our confiscatory taxation.
They have no clue when they are being ripped off either - with loans or any other products, because they cannot comparison shop. No wonder the savings rate of these young kids is negative - without basic math skills, they can’t figure out how to do a simple budget.
But it shows the total dumbing down of the population. When I went to school, every student took physics. Whether they ‘needed’ it or not. How does one know if they love the subject if they are never introduced to it?
And without scientists and engineers, the number of patents and innovations in this country has plummeted. We farm out our technical expertise to India. Manufacturing goes to China. We can’t gain from what we give away - and cannot recreate later on when all this comes crashing down.