Maybe the best argument for teaching people math is to show them how complexity can be tamed via patterns. As in, if you sit down and think logically, you can f

Maybe the best argument for teaching people math is to show them how complexity can be tamed via patterns. As in, if you sit down and think logically, you can find solutions or come up with approaches to even the gnarliest-looking problems. And things that sound very simple (e.g. the Fermat conjecture, which can be understood by 5-th graders) can have really complicated solutions. It should teach people how to use their slow thinking rather than their fast thinking and that they absolutely have the capacity to do it. I've similarly never met anyone who had to do 20 accurately timed hops in a row daily, but I don't hear anyone want to remove jumprope and P.E. Still, there should absolutely be a class on "real-world applied mathematics" where you're taught the mathematical principles behind loans, mortgages, taxes, etc.