Math illiteracy

In high school, the question often comes up, “when are we ever going to use this?” We can argue whether any of the classes we take in school are important to our imminent professional lives, but agree or disagree it is a fact that lawyers and doctors don’t prove two triangles similar on a daily basis. In twenty years I doubt I will remember much about quadrilaterals, or the causes of the Hundred Years War. Everything I pick up in school is important to me now, but it is hard to believe that much would ever apply to my professional career. That is not to say that what we learn in class is not important. When we have math class, not only are we learning geometry, but we are learning life skills. We learn problem-solving, hard work and perseverance. These skills do stick with us for the rest of our lives, and they are something that doctors and lawyers use daily. U.S. citizens aren't mathematically savvy because for the average citizens math hardly applies in their lives. They may have to do simple arithmetic on a daily basis, but besides that, math isn't part of their daily routine. I, (among others I’m sure), wish this not to be the case. This math illiteracy makes for what appears to be a country full of ignoramuses, and is a cause of many stereotypes about our country. While we can hope that lessons from the high school classrooms stick with us throughout our lives, we can revel in the fact that important skills like hard work do stick with us. So while the average U.S. citizen may not be able to prove the Pythagorean Theorem, skills that applied to this proof (like problem-solving) will have stuck with them and become visceral.