The reality is, people need to know how to use spreadsheets well and accurately, more than they need to be able to do algebra in their head. Math class should

The reality is, people need to know how to use spreadsheets well and accurately, more than they need to be able to do algebra in their head. Math class should be focused more on how to set up a spreadsheet to solve your problem, something like income tax or household budget or home mortgage that nearly everyone will need to do at some point. There are still programmers who can program in Assembler. Most programmers do not, even if they had to learn how in college. If most people knew how to use a calculator (their phone) and a spreadsheet (their laptop), they could do all of the math they need to do (except for the few of us who need something more, or who just enjoy it). The problem is, we evaluate people on how well they know their school math, but we don't evaluate school math by how well it serves most of the people who had to sweat through it. I like math, most people don't, we should focus our education system more on how they can use the tools today to do what will come up often in their life.