The ideas behind Calculus are much more useful IMHO. The idea of rate of change, or change over time, converging and diverging series, these all have practical

The ideas behind Calculus are much more useful IMHO. The idea of rate of change, or change over time, converging and diverging series, these all have practical application to the real world. And the basics of physics makes next to no sense without calculus, and even parts of intro chemistry make more sense after having taken calculus. I remember in one economics class, which didn't have calc as a pre-req, the prof said "alright, for those of you who have taken calculus, this is an integral, you can now leave the classroom and come back tomorrow. Everyone else has to stay." The ideas of calculus just seem so fundamental to me. It is sad that the American schooling system is so slow, and expectations so low, that it isn't taught to everyone. Meanwhile in other countries, everyone, artists to engineers, learns calculus.