“If more of the citizenry understood compounding interest and exponents, there would be torches and pitchforks in DC, and most every statehouse in America.”
My daughter was a bit worried about her college math class. I looked at the curriculum and she’d done nearly every thing in middle school already (yes, middle school.) The new things she did learn was about compounding interest and how to amortize a mortgage, but then we live in Las Vegas with the highest foreclosure rate in the U.S.
I started as a psych major in college. I had to take calculus. I ended up going into nursing. The idea of everyone with a pocket calculator was still a rather new concept. We had to figure out IV drip rates and emergency med dosages in our heads. In NICU, we had to figure out emergency meds according to micro-grams per kilo, per hour, or one-time dose, and possibly how diluted, per kilo. Now, the NICUs have laminated cheat sheets and no one needs a calculator. Not that many nurses now know how to even do the calculations anymore, even with a calculator. God help you if the cheat sheet gets lost.
My wife is a RN, and back when she was in school for Nursing, she said that a LOT of the students failed because of the Math alone. Luckily, she was always great in Math, and it was a breeze for her. I looked at it, and I could fully understand how it could be very difficult for some(I'm not great with Math myself).