Math is symbolic logic, which the human mind uses to make sense of the world. Deny yourself math and you are denying yourself an incredibly powerful mode of thought. The only way you could cripple your mind more would be to deny yourself the use of language, another form of symbolic logic. Math is the foundation of every natural, theoretical, and applied science. Without math we'd still be in caves. Try solving any of the problems that confront man without math. Try going even a day without the applied math found in automobiles, planes, roads, grocery stores, hospitals, agriculture, buildings, sewer systems, etc. I'm having trouble believing this is a serious comment. Please tell us, Zach055, that you're putting us on.

Who do you think makes the "calculators and complex computer programs?"

Humans can do Reason and Emotions. Teaching students to solve math problems helps discipline their minds to solve other problems in their lives in a logical manner. Education means teaching students to think. It should be clear that the collapse of our society is based solely on rampant emotionalism. Pushing buttons on a box is not doing mathematics. It is worth your live to learn how to prove why two triangles are congruent and the life of your country as well.

Garbage in, garbage out. That's what happens when you don't have the knowledge.

First of all, it is the only pure logical class you will take through high school. Second, in order to program in the calculator you have to know what it all means. When to use which equation. There are changes they should make due to advanced computing but those are above HS level. It 's incredibly important to understand set theory. How could you interpret statistics? Read and understand accting data determining the health of a business? Determine BS data someone gives you on manmade global warming? Zach, you 've played your hand open. You are an easy mark. :)

Have you ever been to a gas station and watched a victim of Ted Kennedy's No Child Left Behind try to make change?

I would say you might have a point when it comes to advanced math, however basic math is vital for kids to learn. The kid that has learned math if faster solving basic problems of addition, multiplication, etc. than the kid that has to pull their smart phone out.

The point of math is to understand models of real-world systems. There's value in understanding the very concept of a function, a relationship between sets of numbers. There's value in the concept of calculating slope, area under a curve, and they very concept of relationships following a linear or quadratic model over a short range and the model breaking down beyond that. There's value in understanding statistical distributions, how so many things in nature are Gaussian, but bi-modal and other distributions crop up to.

It's not that I think, "Now I'm using diff eq to understand a problem," but rather having math helps understand the world. It's a way to communicate to other people a model in your mind of systems in the world, whether it's vehicle traffic, supply and demand, how much risk premium it would to take to justify an investment, how larger of a sample you'd need to determine something about a population.

It's just everywhere. IMHO math is the most important thing to be taught b/c it the language and framework for understanding the rest of the world.

Zach, that is a truly naive statement. The human mind by far out performs a calculator. When I was in 10th grade half of my class was given calculator and th rest of us (me included) used our minds to do algebra problems. Every single person that didn't use a calculator finished the problem with accuracy well before those using the calculators.

Saying that math should no longer be taught in schools in this forum takes some real courage. Misguided courage, but courage nonetheless. Mathematics is the language of the mind, and one's mind is the most important thing to Gulchers. You might as well have just told us to turn off our brains and die.

These theories are used in formulating programming needed for technology you will need them in higher math to take measurements. We need all the math we can get if anything our main focus should be mathamatics and science in our schools more lab work less football.

@Zach055, what is your level of mathematical education?