Buddy is missing the point of school. The most important things is to learn how to pass tests, to hit deadlines, and to find a way to work when you'd rather be

Buddy is missing the point of school. The most important things is to learn how to pass tests, to hit deadlines, and to find a way to work when you'd rather be doing something else. Of course he is lamenting, he's a mathematician, so he's made it through all the shit, and his intuition is now a mathematicians intuition. Changing the curriculum will be great for people like him, but terrible for great politicians, who happen to be learning algebra, or chemists, or chefs, or CEO's. Inclusivity is a virtue, so let's not forget the future cannon fodder, the brutes, the blunt instruments, the weak reeds, and the evangelicals. He envisions an untapped strata of mathematicians. I would say that people are not being undersold on mathematics, and it's elegance. There's just not a lot of people who are mathematicians. Rebranding it as art won't help, even art has the fiddly bits that are the bedrock of life. Cut the construction paper. Gather the glue, don't get caught huffing it, etc. In fact, if anything they should stop teaching algebra and calculus and start teaching statistical methods and probability, which will expose students to evaluating risk. Give em some dice. ( parents might be ambivalent about this ) Discrete math, where you can do it with marbles and a strip of tape. This would make intro science more like numerical methods, and then they'd move into continuous math a bit later. It does not really matter though. Hit deadlines, pass tests, and know how to grind your way through something simple and tedious. Because simple love of the work might not be enough. Maybe you end up having to strip to pay for textbooks. Maybe shit just doesnt work out for you right away. Those rote tasks will keep you moving toward your dreams.